Scotland’s new first minister has been urged to fix a North East accident blackspot after the latest horror collision at the junction.
On May 4, four people were injured in the most recent accident at the A90/A952 interchange at Toll of Birness.
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Upgrades at Ellon, and new roundabouts at the Toll and Cortes junctions are among a series of options that public feedback is being sought on as part of a study into improvements on the A90 and A952.
During First Minister’s Questions, North East region MSP Liam Kerr told John Swinney he would be the fourth first minister since an SNP election promise to upgrade the road.
Recent figures from the Scottish Government revealed no cash has been invested in improving safety at the junction over the last year while just £67,000 has been spent since 2017.
The Scottish Conservative said:
“Yet another crash at the notorious Toll Of Birness last week resulted in four people in hospital and the road closed for hours.
“Promises to upgrade this junction date back to before 2007 when Alex Salmond said his first decision, if elected as First Minister, would be to deal with this road.
“Seventeen years on — promise broken, continued carnage.
“Will the new SNP First Minister deliver on the promises that all previous SNP First Ministers have broken?”
Mr Swinney replied:
“I’ll happily take forward the issues that Mr Kerr has raised with me today. The government, of course, has an infrastructure programme, which is taking forward developments around the country.
“I’ll look at the particular project that Mr Kerr has put to me and consider the position of that project within the government’s capital programme.”
Mr Kerr said later:
“Now the Greens are out of government, the SNP are out of excuses for not delivering on promises that are now almost 20 years old.
“Collisions like this one should act as a catalyst for upgrading the Toll of Birness junction and dualling the A90 north of Ellon.
“John Swinney didn’t seem to know much about the issue here, and I’ll forgive him some ‘new job’ jitters. But we’re going to keep the pressure on the SNP because lives are at stake.
“Mr Swinney will find he has a lot of promises to live up to in the North East, which the last three First Ministers failed to deliver.”
