NESTLED in the isthmus linking the Galloway peninsula and the mainland, Stranraer is the second biggest town in Dumfries and Galloway after Dumfries itself – and its poor infrastructure has left it living in a climate of “fear”.
Romano Petrucci chairs the Stranraer Development Trust, a charity set up by a group of people concerned at the town’s lengthy downturn, which has not been helped by poor road and rail links to the rest of Scotland.
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He told The National: “When I say fear, I’m talking about the distinct possibility of [ferry operators] P&O or Stena, the next time they come across the issue of spending money on the harbour or moving, just thinking ‘there’s no roads here, the government don’t care about it – we can move 30 miles to Largs or Troon … build a new pier and we don’t have to worry about Stranraer’.
“That’s what the fear is from the trust’s point of view and the local business community.
“We’ve been completely abandoned here. Departments in London and Holyrood don’t care at all about the upkeep of our roads here. These are heavy duty vehicles, four million passengers a year and there’s nothing done."
Petrucci said it had reached the stage where he feared the town’s position was “irretrievable”, with major work and expenditure needed to replace the infrastructure.
When work was being carried out on the A77 or A75, the roads were completely closed, which left people having to use the A714 Newton Stewart to Girvan route.
“That’s an absolutely awful road,” he said. “All the haulage firms use it and you wonder if there is an accident how are the emergency services going to get there? Nobody’s got a clue.
“So, the situation is dire, and we’ve been left to rot down here for far too long. At a time when a lot of us are trying to appreciate and side with historically what’s right for Scotland in terms of independence and so on, we’re finding it really hard to shout down here.
“At the end of the day, we’ve been absolutely and utterly abandoned.”
Petrucci said there was one other major fear, the idea of which terrified him: “Local GPs have told us that by their estimation, in three years’ time, there will be no GPs whatsoever in Stranraer because doctors don’t want to come here to work and spend their time sitting at traffic lights.”
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