A Highlands and Islands Labour MSP has called again for a meeting with Scotland’s Transport Minister to press for urgent progress on the dualling of the A9.

Reacting to eight deaths in three months on a 25-mile stretch of the road, the Strathspey and Badenoch Herald quotes Rhoda Grant as saying, “I continue to have constituents contact me pleading for improvements on the road before anyone else loses a life.

“I am extremely disappointed that the Minister has not yet responded to my request for a meeting and I have contacted her again asking for the opportunity to meet her to discuss the very real need for progress with dualling the rest of this road.

“If the Scottish Government is to meet its 2025 target for completing the dualling it really needs to inject a sense of urgency to move this forward before another family suffers the heart-break of losing a loved one.”

The carriageway at the Slochd and Raliabeag south of Newtonmore have been the scene of multiple fatalities, with casualties on other stretches of the road as well.

The newspaper quotes a written response on the dualling progress published in the summer in which the Minister had stated: “Work to determine the most suitable procurement options for the remaining sections of the A9 dualling is ongoing.”

(Picture courtesy of Google StreetView)