The A83 remains today [22nd November] under warning of increased risk of landslides at Rest and Be Thankful. With Argyll facing bad weather alerts, businesses – including tourism businesses and major winter season events- are on edge, hoping the hillside above this section of the A83 will hold on in the teeth of the forecast rainstorms.
The landslide that closed the A83 on Monday 19th November at around 07.15 turned out to be a small one, which Scotland Transerv efficiently cleared by mid afternoon, reopening the road at around 15.00.
The lack of the emergency diversion route promised for November – which would have eased this situation, was an aggravation but concerns for the economic damage to Argyll in the continuing unreliability of this landslide prone arterial road were and remain widespread.
Mike Story, Executive Director of Argyll and the Isles Tourism Ltd, said: ‘To wake this morning and find yet another landslip has blocked the A83 Rest and be Thankful is deeply frustrating.
‘The intolerable situation of regular landslips on the A83 cannot continue. These landslips happen with monotonous regularity, creating a transport thrombosis, choking the life blood in one of Argyll’s most important arteries. The wave of disruption which is created by these landslips sweeps through our heartlands to our ferry ports and to our 25 Islands.
‘Each and every time this happens, confidence in our area, confidence in our ability to deliver, and our customers confidence in us, is swept away like the hillsides of the Rest and be Thankful and we become a weaker and less reliable.
‘As a member of the A83 task force, I am already speaking to my colleagues and we will be asking Transport Minister Keith Brown MSP to reconvene the group urgently. The delay in securing the land owners permission to complete the work on the old military road has come with an hefty additional price tag.
‘Meanwhile, Argyll is still open for business, By Road, by Rail, by Ferry and by Air, we will get our goods and services to our customers and our guests to us.’
As well as summing up the spirit of Argyll, this last remark of Mr Story’s underlines the additional burden under which businesses of all kinds in Argyll are forced to operate by this ongoing hazard.
They don’t just have to deal with the long economic storm wave resulting from the upheavals of the casino banks. They have to live every day in the spirit of Winston Churchill, with one eye on Rest and Be Thankful to anticipate cancellations, reroutings and heavily increased fuel costs.
The emergency diversion route, when it happens – will make no more than a modest difference to this situation because the serial convoying of single lane trails of traffic through the old military road and up around the famous hairpin will be a slow business.
We must have an adopted permanent solution top this unable road – with a firm and acceptable date tag on it by Easter 2013 at the latest.
The report, commissioned from consultant’s Jacobs by Transport Scotland into the feasibility of a variety of potential permanent solutions, is said to be almost complete and is due to be presented to the A83 Taskforce at a meeting to be convened in December.
Three months is more than enough time for Transport Scotland, at last, to get serious about the A83 and, in that period, to adopt the most appropriate permanent solution and put a date on it, at whatever cost.
At the moment, the whole of Argyll – the second largest local authority area in Scotland – the Argyll isles and other Hebridean islans are hostages to fortune in thrall to this unpredicatable road.
There is no economic sense on this.
The Western Isles is already a basket case economy, through no fault of its own. The entire west coast has the potential to take the last paert of the route to a similar condition – unless proactive and strategic economic development initiatives are put in place.
With decent infrastructure, Argyll – in its proximity to the central belt, has the capacity to develop and then to act as both as support system and an engine to drive development on up the west coast.
This is an area that could, if it worked as it might, energise the upper west coast of the country. To leave it lamed by the inability of the key access road is economic illiteracy to an indefensible degree.
The significance of the A83 is, on evidence, not understood in any real sense by a city based, east coast focused government. The emergency diversion road is little less than a mollifier and, essentially, a waste of money.
It is predictable that when it is completed, Argyll is likely to be left to its offices for the foreseeable future. This cannot happen.
The Argyll First group of councillors are seeing a petition on the A83 through the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament.
Councillor Donald Kelly of Argyll First, said of Monday’s landslide: ‘Like everyone in Argyll and Bute we were not surprised to hear that yet again the Rest was closed.
‘The situation is becoming very frustrating and we feel that the Scottish government need to up their game as a matter of priority.
‘The work on the Military road has started after unacceptable delays and many false dawns. Given that any permanent solution is a number of years away and still to be committed to, the forestry road [Ed: on the other, south, side of Glen Croe] should also be upgraded.
‘Roads through wind farm sites are constructed and upgraded in a matter of weeks to take vehicles in excess of 70 plus tonnes why not here?.
‘Our view is that if the military road proves successful as a by- pass we are highly unlikely to a see a permanent solution delivered.
‘Argyll First will continue keep the pressure on the Scottish Government to address all the issues raised in our petition.’
Jamie McGrigor MSP, who has consistently pressed Scottish Ministers to take action on this key trunk road, said on Monday: ‘This is dreadful news for my constituents and businesses throughout Argyll and Bute who are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated at the Scottish Government’s failure to make prevention of landslides on this route and the provision of alternatives a much greater priority. Many feel that if this road was in the central belt instead, solutions would have been in place years ago.
‘The Transport Minister assured me in the summer that the alternative diversionary route would be in place by November. We are heading towards the end of November and that route is still not in place.
‘Ministers need to explain their failure to deliver this and to spell out exactly how long my constituents will have to wait before this alternative road is in place. I and my colleague Councillor Donald Kelly, warned repeatedly that this route needed to be in place before the onset of the worst of the winter weather which we are now beginning to see.
‘I will be seeking to raise this latest closure of the A83 in the Scottish Parliament tomorrow by way of a topical question which I hope the Presiding Officer will select for answer.’
Jamie McGrigor’s parliamentary questions
Jamie McGrigor went on to table two questions yesterday [21st November]; and the text of these questions and the answers received are given below.
21 November 2012
Index Heading: Transport Scotland
Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to improve the safety of the crossings on the A83 at (a) Tarbert and (b) Ardrishaig.
(S4W-11072)
Mr Keith Brown MSP : Safety at the crossings at Tarbert and Ardrishaig will be looked at as part of the current A83 Study which is looking closely at what more can be done in managing the effects of landslides at the Rest and Be Thankful and also looking at removing pinch points along the route. The A83 Taskforce will oversee delivery of any
longer-term measures.
21 November 2012
Index Heading: Transport Scotland
Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party): To ask the Scottish Government how much it will invest in improving the safety of the crossings on the A83 at (a) Tarbert and (b) Ardrishaig.
(S4W-11073)
Mr Keith Brown MSP : I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-11072 on 21 November 2012. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at HYPERLINK “http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx” \o “http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx” http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.
These questions, of course, brong ointo play the additional problems of this key access road. There are problems with road crossings at pinh points on its route west and south to the most southerly part of Argyll at Campbeltown.
This crucial road is also left in a a Jekyll and Hyde condition, trubked onlhy as far as Kennacraig on west Loch Tarnert and left to the devices of the local authority for the rest of its run south though Kintyre to Campbeltown.
Jamie McGriogor’s questions were focused on pinch points within the triubked section and therefore the responsibility of government – of Transport Scotland – to address.
The Transport Minister’s uninterested and unengaged responses to these questions tell the heart of this sorry tale. The west coast is foreign territory, left out on a limb in the perception of the Scottish Government.
Argyll and Bute’s MSP, Michael Russell, said in a press release issued at the tine of the Monday landslide: ‘As the main arterial route into Argyll it is essential that this route is given priority.’
Unfortunately Mr Russell’s personal priorities this week have led him to position himself in public opposition to his colleague, the Transport Minister.
He has written to the Ombudsman for Scottish Public Services and supporting a request for the watchdog to investigate Transport Scotland for alleged maladministration and negligence in the matter of the contract for the passenger ferry service between Gourock and Dunoon.
The Transport Minister is now unlikely to be particularly disposed to listen to any pleas from Mr Russell on prioritising the A83.