Campaign for emergency laws to all parts of A75 to be dualled within six years
Emergency laws could allow parts of the A75 to be dualled within six years.
Galloway and West Dumfries MSP Finlay Carson and Tory colleague South Scotland MSP Craig Hoy have joined forces to campaign for new legislation to have the Euroroute turned into a dual carriageway as quickly as possible.
Their proposals would reduce the time it takes for an environmental impact assessment to be carried out and create infrastructure investment partnerships so that more private investment could be found for the scheme.
Mr Carson said: 'As someone who has lived along the A75 my whole life, I know just how important it is and how desperately we need to see it fully dualled.
'Our emergency law would speed up the process of dualling this route and encourage more private investment into the road.
'If this road isn't finally dualled then there is a real threat of businesses taking their trade elsewhere, which would be a hammer blow for south west Scotland.
'Craig Hoy and I are determined to campaign for this vital upgrade and for full dualling. It is clear that only the Scottish Conservatives can be trusted to dual the A75 in full.'
The need to upgrade the A75 was identified in the Scottish Government's second Strategic Transport Projects Review and the UK Government's Union Connectivity Review.
Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community!
Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.
You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.
No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.
All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in!
If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'.
We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like.
To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'.
Last week, the UK Government announced an extra £3.45 million was being put into a feasibility study into bypassing Springholm and Crocketford, having previously allocated 'up to £5 million' to the scheme.
Experts were appointed to carry out the work last year – but earlier this year Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop warned it would take two years for the study to be carried out.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- The Guardian
Spotlight on Keir Starmer's recognition of Palestine
I'm puzzled by the conditions Keir Starmer has set for Israel to meet, failing which he'll recognise Palestine as a state (UK to recognise state of Palestine in September unless Israel holds to a ceasefire, 29 July). Why does recognition depend on Israel's actions? Surely it should depend on Palestine's: commitments to abjure terrorism, disarm Hamas, hold democratic elections and, of course, to release the hostages. As for Israel, UK policy should be to impose draconian sanctions: if Israel continues to act like a pariah state, let it be treated as one. Without sanctions, there would probably still be an apartheid regime in South Africa. The UK must act now, not half-heartedly in September; thousands of children in Gaza can't wait until MaughanDunblane, Perthshire Like so many people in the UK, I thought that my despair and shame over the situation in Gaza could not be deepened. Keir Starmer achieved that. How like this prime minister to obfuscate further and kick any sense of decisiveness into the long grass of contingency. One might think that Britain has some special responsibility for recognising the state of Palestine, whose population it abandoned to the predations of its neighbour in 1948. What will be left of Gaza, the West Bank and its people by September? A genocide? A diaspora? The UK doesn't negotiate with terrorists, just with war Prof Graham MortLancaster University Soon after the atrocities of 7 October 2023 I heard someone on the radio say, with respect to Israel's imminent invasion of Gaza, 'Beware of being goaded by your enemy into doing what your enemy wants you to do.' Nearly two years on, the Israeli government seems hell-bent on creating a moral equivalence between itself and Hamas. If you become like your enemy, then your enemy has won. Thus, despite what it says about recent moves to recognise a Palestinian state, the Israeli government, more than any other, is 'rewarding' Hamas for its terrorist actions. The Rev Rob KelseyBerwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland It is impossible for us to know the depth of despair Palestinians must feel to hear western nations pontificating that we will not recognise them as a nation if their oppressors stop killing them. It seems this is the ultimate acknowledgment that they have no rights except those we deem to give them. We have expelled them from the land in which they lived to ensure that Europe didn't have the problem of resettling the thousands displaced by a European war. They are being attacked in Gaza and the West Bank with weapons supplied by western governments. They are being starved in Gaza to keep their oppressor-in-chief in office. And now our governments are praised for condescending to recognise the fact that they are a nation (that has existed for more than 1,000 years). How can we think we have any integrity left in our dealings with the oppressed?Michael McLoughlinWallington, London What will give greater weight to the call for a two-state solution is outlining the building blocks for establishment of a Palestinian state: for example, Gaza would be placed under UN control to allow for demilitarisation, the physical reconstruction and drawing up a basic law to guide the development of a constitutional WeirCape Town, South Africa Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Spectator
7 hours ago
- Spectator
Truss takes a pop at Badenoch over Tory record
Uh oh. As if Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch didn't have enough on her plate with the rise of Reform eating into the Tory vote, now one of her predecessors has taken a pop at her. Liz Truss has taken to the august pages of the Telegraph to attack Badenoch, accusing the Leader of the Opposition of being 'not willing to tell the truth to her own supporters'. The gloves are coming off… Truss's scathing remarks follow a piece in the same newspaper by Badenoch, in which the Conservative leader said that Keir Starmer's Labour government was failing to learn from the mini-Budget that led to Truss's downfall. In an attempt to push back on Labour's narrative that the country's economic woes are the fault of the Tories, Badenoch wrote: For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes. They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books. But Truss was left rather unimpressed by the comparison, with the former Prime Minister and her allies convinced that her low-tax vision was the right thing for the country. In her latest piece, Truss wrote: 'She is wrong. Labour is doing the opposite of the mini-budget, which is why the country is headed for disaster.' Shots fired! She went on, describing how her previous policies put her in line with the thinking of US President Donald Trump, before lamenting: It is disappointing that, instead of serious thinking like this, Kemi Badenoch is instead repeating spurious narratives. I suspect she is doing this to divert from the real failures of 14 years of Conservative government in which her supporters are particularly implicated. Ouch! Will Badenoch bite back? Stay tuned…
The National
7 hours ago
- The National
Which MPs have received the most donations? See the full list
A secretive and influential Labour group, Labour Together, received a huge bulk of that – a third of the whole pot, in fact, at £2,669,832. Then there are various other party-affiliated groups – including Labour YIMBY (Yes In My Back Yard) and the Tory-uCarlton Club Political Committee, which regularly supports Tory MPs – which benefited from various five and six figure sums. But what about our elected MPs? Propping up the top of the list, perhaps unsurprisingly, are the Tory MPs who battled it out last year to be party leader. Despite coming second, Robert Jenrick has been gifted the most of any individual MP since July 5 last year at £762,936. This has included a donation of £35,000 from Quantum Pacific Corporation UK, which is owned by Idan Ofer, a London-based shipping and mining heir whose father was once Israel's richest man. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch was given the second largest amount at £725,812. This includes £150,000 from Lord Bamford of JC Bamford Excavators (JCB), who was a longtime Boris Johnson backer. Erstwhile contenders Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverley and Priti Patel received £409,669, £293,500 and £201,332 respectively. Other MPs who have received a hefty amount of money from donors includes Labour MP Clive Lewis, who has received £125,882 – much of which was from organisations such as Compass - Together for a Good Society Ltd, who support his bill looking to introduce the public ownership of water. Lib Dem MP and former leader Tim Farron has received a hefty £73,364 including over £60k from Faith in Public, a religious think-tank he started. Jeremy Corbyn is the ninth highest with nearly £70,000, over £60k of which came from Community Unity Ltd. Here is a full list of all donations from regulated donees to MPs since July 5 2025:
