Born in 1946 and brought up in Cupar, Fife, I was educated at the local school - A90 (Laurencekirk)
4. Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide funding in 2008-09 for a full grade-separated junction on the A90 at Laurencekirk. (S3O-1725)
The Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change (Stewart Stevenson): The trunk road investment programme for 2008-9 is, as is normal with planning for major improvements, long term, and is largely as inherited from the previous Administration, which made no provision for that work.
Mike Rumbles: Nicol Stephen, a previous Minister for Transport, implemented short-term measures at the Laurencekirk junction, such as a 50mph speed limit, speed cameras and a new surface. Those were only ever intended to be short-term measures. To save lives and prevent accidents, the solution is to build a grade-separated junction. When will the Scottish Government be in a position to make the necessary funding available? Can the minister give the Parliament a specific date—a year, perhaps—when we might expect a grade-separated junction to be built there?
Stewart Stevenson: I accept that, on 11 January 2005, Nicol Stephen announced the improvements that were made at the junction, to which the member referred, and I supported their introduction.
In answer to a question from Mike Rumbles, on 29 September 2005 Tavish Scott addressed the issue and said:
"The forthcoming Strategic Transport Projects Review will provide the future framework for decisions on competing priorities for investment in schemes to improve the trunk road network, including proposals for grade separation at junctions such as the A90 at Laurencekirk."—[Official Report, Written Answers, 29 September 2005; S2O-7713.]
Mike Rumbles can be assured that we shall do at least as well as that, and we will strive to do better. It will not be difficult.
