Friday, October 23, 2015

Campaign for cycle lanes next to A96 gets reaction from Transport Scotland "Roads agency insists cyclists are not being forgotten in A96 plans"

Regular readers will remember a recent article where we published comment from the Secretary of Nairn West Community Council, he had said in relation to cycling tracks parallel to the A96:

 "Transport Scotland were remarkably hostile, the furthest they would go was to kind of suggest at each end of the bypass where there’s junctions and roundabouts, they might put in crossing areas so that any existing cycle route could then find its way not under or over but across – which kind of misses the point."

 Read in full what Brian had to say, plus Gurn comment and some very interesting points made from readers here. That article was picked up way beyond Nairn as cycling and green observers throughout Scotland noticed it on twitter. 

Now we have some information from Moray published last week:

"DESIGNERS LOOKING AT the dualling of the A96 through Moray are being urged to include provisions for cyclists in their plans.

Earlier this week the Scottish Government announced that they had taken a major step forward in their plans for dualling the entire route of the Inverness to Aberdeen road, offering a design contract worth up to £50million for the section through Moray.

Now local campaigner Neil Jeronim is urging whoever wins that contract to consider the opportunity it presents to create a cycle track at the same time – something that he says Transport Scotland appeared to be overlooking." 
The reaction from Transport Scotland can be read on the Inside Moray site here. 


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

'A spokesman said: “We recognise the contribution local and user groups play – we have set up community council and non-motorised user forums to provide updates on emerging proposals and also to seek vital feedback, that will continue in the coming months.”'

Of course the statement above does not actually mean they HAVE to do anything at all about any issues raised - I find that unless mandated to by Government/Councils they will do the cheapest thing possible that they were contracted to do. If the contract has no cycle provision, we will get none.

I have emailed them to as for contact details for the Community Council and non-motorised user forums - as on the Transport For Scotland Project Web Site I cannot find any.