A study looking at ways to overhaul safety on a notorious north-east road was yesterday hailed as the “starting gun for action”.
A route improvement strategy for the A947 Aberdeen to Banff road – which has been the scene of nine fatalities and 40 serious injuries in the last five years – was unveiled by Aberdeenshire Council earlier this month.
Councillors are being consulted on a list of 20 improvement options and yesterday the authority’s transport strategy tsar Mark Skilling visited members in Banffshire.
There, members heard the most likely outcome of the report would be the dualling of the route to Newmachar.
Mr Skilling said no stone had been left unturned in the investigation into how to improve the 41-mile route, and that he had told his team to “rule nothing in and rule nothing out”.
He said that the costs laid out in the report – including an “eye-watering” £500million proposal to dual the entire route – were a starting point for discussion.
“My own view is we should be dualling as far as Newmachar,” he added. “Bypassing the towns is not really justifiable the further you get from Aberdeen.
“Once you get north of Oldmeldrum we have to improve overtaking options.”
The Banff and Buchan area committee praised Mr Skilling and the team for the thorough report, which Councillor Michael Roy said had “fired the starting gun for action”.
He said: “Most of what’s in here we’ve known about before, but nothing has been implemented except sticking plasters. The action plan must be put in place as a priority.”
Portsoy councillor Ian Gray added: “Although this is a bit aspirational and the figures are mind-blowing, I would support dualling to Newmachar. That’s the bottleneck.”
Other councillors including Ross Cassie and Mark Findlater – a driving instructor and chairman of the local safety group respectively – raised the issue of increasing driver education to improve safety.
Mr Findlater said: “The main thing is about changing driver behaviour. If we have more education we will get more considerate and safer drivers.”
The route improvement strategy will be discussed by members of the Garioch area committee on Tuesday.
