ONE has to ask how many towns in Scotland would agree to being fully cut off each night for a fortnight and on two whole weekends with no buses and no travel allowed on what is supposed to be a major trunk road. The Royal and Ancient Burgh of Selkirk is having to suffer this now, and we have to wonder why.
Transport Scotland, a branch of the Scottish Government, took this unusual step along with its contractors, Amey Highways, to “resurface the A7 between Selkirk and Hawick”, but we have to ask why. This very same road was re-surfaced less than two years ago, and the question has to be “with what?”.
Tarmacadam used to least for years before being required to be resurfaced, but nowadays a totally inferior product seems to last almost until the temporary traffic lights are taken down before it starts to degenerate and break up. This cannot by cost-effective, and neither can the decisions to completely close a major highway and wreak havoc on business, commerce and the travelling public.
Every time there is the need to carry out repairs on this road, and others in the Scottish Borders, the contractors make an order to what is supposed to be our democratic local council to close the road.
When we ask why we are told that “it is in the interests of safety for our staff because the road is too narrow to work on”. Oh yes, then why isn’t it built wider or even made dual carriageway, as it is supposed to be a trunk road?
I asked that question before and was told by an SNP MSP who represents a local constituency that it was all to do with costs. Christine Grahame almost had a traditional and Scottish “palpatoorilum” and told me that an M7 was out of the question because it would cost the same price per mile to build a new motorway through the Borders as it costs to build a mile of motorway outside Glasgow.
So what? Motorists in the Scottish Borders who were told that the A7 would be hugely improved in 1969 when they closed the Waverley Railway Line to Carlisle, but it is still a cart-track and strangely we Borderers are asked to pay the same road tax as my Glaswegian friends.
Down here in Selkirk it feels like Brigadoon, that mythical village that only appears for one day each 200 years. We were promised as a stop-gap a “shuttle bus” from Selkirk to Galashiels so that we could jump on a redirected Borders Buses bus to Hawick, which took in half of the Borders and only ran when they decided there were enough passengers probably standing in Selkirk. For Ashkirk and other settlements further south there was no public transport at all.
A shameful and badly thought-out shambles.
W Kenneth Gunn
Selkirk
JUST read the very entertaining article by Kevin McKenna on the poor overworked royals (Free millions and infinity pools can’t wipe away tears of our poor royals, October 23).
I think it’s time The National had an official “royal correspondent” and Kevin is the obvious choice. It will be so much more entertaining than listening to Nicholas Witchell crawling and whingeing about the royals and their hangers-on.
READ MORE: Kevin McKenna: I've little sympathy for our royals complaining about the press
He could have a once-monthly report on the goings-on of the lot of them, including the lack of importance of their very busy lifestyles for that month and what it’s costing the peasants to keep them in food, clothing and housing.
Obviously any ground-breaking news on the royals, for instance any London mews residences that a prince is seen visiting, or the media intruding on Meghan and Harry when it doesn’t suit them, or an old dear seen oot and aboot in a carriage with horses jobbbying on the road and adding to the methane build-up on the planet, could be treated as a news flash from our royal correspondent Kevin McKenna.
Could be very entertaining reading as Kevin obviously knows how to word such important matters.
Ian Heggie
Glenrothes
YET again I have received a glossy communication from my MP, Stephen Kerr, and this time he uses three local folk who are pleased that he helped them in matters which are devolved and none of his business.
However, this time he does not claim that only Ruth can save the world from indyref2. This is an extraordinary change, because since before he was elected it is the only policy he has ever advanced in his propaganda. Could it be that he knew something about the Colonel’s conflict of interest in her dealings before it hit your front pages?
Stephen still adheres loyally to the cause, arguing that we voted No and meant it. However, more recently, we voted Remain and meant that, and every acting by Stephen in the House of Commons has defied that obligation to his constituents. You won’t find Brexit mentioned proudly in any of his local propaganda.
KM Campbell
Doune
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