South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has said the Scottish Government has ‘no plan, no clue and no money’ for improvements to the A75 and A77.

The local MSP recently received the replies to several written questions he had submitted to the Scottish Government, asking for more details about timescales, funding plans and exactly what improvements are planned for the two roads.

Each response from Transport Secretary Fiona Hyslop showed that the Scottish Government has no plans to improve the roads any time soon.

Colin Smyth said: “STPR2 was years late in being published and communities in the south west are still waiting to hear exactly when the very limited planned projects to improve the A75 and A77 will be delivered, despite promise after promise by both the Scottish and UK Governments.

“The answers to my recent parliamentary questions show that the Scottish Government has no plan, no clue and no money where these roads are concerned.

“Communities simply won’t believe they will get any respite until we see a meaningful timescale for when work on projects are going to be started. The fact the government keeps stalling raises fears they are either not serious about delivering improvements, or they are kicking those plans even further into the long grass.

“SPTR2 was a long awaited disappointment which proposed very little in the way of meaningful investment for the A75 and A77. However, the fact that years after this review was originally supposed to have reported, we still don’t have a timescale for schemes such as the Crocketford and Springholm bypasses really is unacceptable.

“The track record of this Government on transport projects is one of overpromising and underdelivering, while our communities are left to deal with the consequences.

“At this point, communities across the south west have completely lost faith that this government will ever deliver any transport improvements in their area. Moreover, bus and rail services have been cut back.

“We’ve had enough feasibility studies and reports to last a lifetime, what we need now is fewer warm words and more action.”