A campaigner has hit out at a delay in publishing a report on whether calls for a flyover at a notorious north-east road junction are warranted.
Jill Fotheringham said she was dismayed that the Access to Laurencekirk study would now be published in 2015 instead of this year.
The florist has been campaigning for major safety improvements at the A90 Aberdeen to Dundee road at its junction with the A937 Laurencekirk-Montrose road since 2004.
Transport Scotland (TS) provided £100,000 of funding to regional transport partnership Nestrans, which appointed a company called CH2M HILL to consider the road conditions and future traffic growth in the area.
TS official David Anderson told Holyrood’s infrastructure committee, which is examining the case, in March that he hoped the study would be published this summer.
But he has now informed MSPs that the firm needed more time to “gather all the necessary information”.
In a letter to the committee, Mr Anderson said: “The programme of work has been extended and the additional drop in sessions with local residents will now take place early next year.
“In light of these developments we now anticipate the report will be available during the early part of next year.”
Ms Fotheringham said she was not impressed and questioned whether it was a delaying tactic.
“We now face another winter having to cross the junction with no promise that it is going to get better,” she added.
“I am losing hope that the report will bring anything more than reasons why it doesn’t need to be done or it does but our government won’t fund it.
“The junction doesn’t need any more endless reports and studies done on it to know how to fix it.
“It is on a trunk road and it is Transport Scotland’s responsibility, not developers or local councils.”
Transport Minister Keith Brown said he had asked his officials to examine whether the publication date could be brought forward.
Speaking at Holyrood yesterday, he said: “People want to develop in the Laurencekirk area and we want to have the best possible road safety record.
“Those two things should come together and I intend to ensure that happens.”
