Renewed calls for Rest and be Thankful solution after Baillie calls for urgency

By Bill Heaney

Dumbarton MSP Jackie Baillie drew the Scottish Government attention last week to the ongoing disruption and dangers to motorists crossing the Rest and Be Thankful into Argyll.

Now more campaigners have renewed their calls for an urgent permanent solution to the A83’s trouble-hit Rest and Be Thankful.

Following on a BBC Panorama programme about the A82, Balloch to Tarbet road which was dubbed the most dangerous road in the country, Ms Baillie said the Government should have a long hard look at the situation there.

She also urged the new Transport Minister to do something to resolve the situation on the A83 Arrochar to Inverary road, where landslines have caused avalanches of rocks and mud after periods of exceptionally heavy rain.

The section of road near Arrochar has become infamous for closures caused by landslides from the hillside above it.

The Scottish government said it recognised there were “frustrations” over timescales and aims to announce more proposals later this year.

Communities and businesses that rely on the A83 said travelling the route was a cause of stress and extra costs.

They want a permanent alternative route – identified by Transport Scotland last March – to be open by 2024.

The A83 is an almost 100-mile (161 km) major trunk road connecting the Mull of Kintyre and southern Argyll to the shores of Loch Lomond.

About 1.3 million vehicles travel the route every year and it acts as an important transport link for mainland Argyll as well as the Inner Hebrides.

But the Rest and Be Thankful is vulnerable to landslides and in 2020 was closed for a total of 200 days.

When the road is closed, an old military road beneath it is opened to traffic. But if both roads are closed then a 59-mile (95km) diversion via Crianlarich is in place.

Since 2007, the Scottish government has spent £87m on improvements to the entire A83 and last year identified a route through Glen Croe near the existing road as a preferred route for a new road.

Last month, a £1.8m contract was awarded to an engineering firm to carry out preliminary ground investigations for the new stretch of road.

The then transport minister Graeme Dey said at the time that a proposal for a medium-term solution, while the new route was developed, would be brought forward to late 2022.

He said he knew timescales were “frustrating” for local communities, but the work was “technically challenging” in a “dynamic landscape”.

But Kenny MacLeod, a member of the Rest and Be Thankful Campaign, said it had taken too long to fix the problem.

He has told BBC Alba’s Eòrpa programme: “They spend money elsewhere and they don’t care about this place. They don’t care.”

Catherine Kennedy, Lochgilphead-based co-ordinator for Mid-Argyle Transport Volunteers, said travelling the A83 was a stressful experience for the charity’s drivers and the vulnerable people they take to Glasgow for hospital appointments.

She said: “Our drivers go an hour earlier to collect people and get them to Glasgow in case they have to go a different way.

“Hospitals cannot wait for us to get there so we have to really make sure we are on time for those appointments.

“It’s a difficult situation. It is stressful for everybody.”

Haulage boss Matthew Mundell’s great grandfather was a cattle drover who took cattle over the Rest and Be Thankful.

He said: “We are using the same road to put 44-tonne HGV on. In my opinion it is not suitable for the job.”

Mr Mundell said the additional costs to hauliers, such as fuel, when the Rest and Be Thankful was closed ran to £1.2m a year.

He added: “The Rest and Be Thankful is throttling the local economy. We are struggling to get goods to people who need them quickly and, if not sorted, people are going to be a lot worse off.”

Speaking to Eòrpa before he stood down as transport minister due to ill health last month, Mr Dey said the Scottish government was doing everything it could to keep the route open and was working on medium and long-term solutions.

Thursday’s episode of Eòrpa will be shown from 20:30 and will be available on iPlayer.