 The fine light of business is a member's business debate on motion 14491 in the name of Emma Harper on the Mable Bypass and South Scotland road infrastructure. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I can ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Emma Harper to open the debate. Ms Harper, please. I thank all members from across the chamber who have supported my motion regarding the Mable Bypass and wider South Scotland infrastructure. All their support from my colleagues has allowed us to have this important debate this evening, which is so crucial to those that we represent across the south west of Scotland. I would also like to welcome the support and collegial working and input from Jeane Freeman, who is a constituency MSP for the area. She has been able to help to engage in the issue and raise awareness of the issue. I look forward to working with the cabinet secretary in the future about that. I also pay tribute to both the A75 and A77 action groups, who are also watching from home. The digital infrastructure that we have been so keen to wait on means that many people have chosen not to travel across the region, but they are watching from home. I would like to thank them for their work in lobbying myself, other elected members and the Scottish Government for major investment on the transport and infrastructure issues that affect our main arterial routes in the south west. People in Mable have been campaigning for a town bypass for 70 years. Seventy years seems that it is a long time. Members of the Mable Bypass Committee, Peter Mason, David Kilty and former MSP Adam Ingram, to name but a few, helped me with the additional information ahead of the debate. I spoke directly with Peter and Adam, and they explained that it was agreed by many, many people years ago before this Parliament was even created that, in order for Mable to be a viable and modern town, a bypass was essential. The committee should be commended for having the foresight to secure future funding to support the historic attributes of the town centre. In 1998, 22 years ago, even before the creation of this Parliament, the Mable Community Council took the decision to set up a sub-committee to formally campaign for a bypass. Peter Mason has chaired the group ever since, and I thank him for that. The committee, made up of hard working and dedicated local people with cross-party associations, has met every single transport cabinet secretary and minister since this Parliament's creation 20 years ago. Their only interest is the future of Mable and its surrounding area, its people, its growth and its prosperity. Speaking with the local people from Mable, it has made me realise just how important a bypass is for the town. Five kilometres at an estimated cost of £30 million. In addition to some of the more obvious reasons in favour of a bypass is that overall roads improvement will contribute to attracting people to rural Scotland, GPs, teachers, healthcare workers and skilled professionals, people that we need to live and work in our rural south-west Scotland. Mable and the Connecting 877 boast much of South Scotland's history, its historic buildings and its heritage. Both the town hall and the castle have serious cracks that are believed to be due to the heavy traffic trundling its way through the town centre. I am encouraged that it is this SNP Scottish Government that has committed to the construction of the Mable bypass. I urge the cabinet secretary and indeed the Scottish Government to make the contractor announcement as soon as possible. The announcement will allow for shovels to be in the ground and diggers to be in the ground and for this Government to show the people of the south-west that they are not forgotten. It is this SNP Government that is standing up and delivering for them. As well as the Mable bypass, there is also a need for wider upgrades to infrastructure around south Scotland, particularly the A75, A76 and A77. Those main critical arterial routes connect the south-west to wider Scotland and to international markets via the port of Cairnryan. Businesses, local people and our emergency services rely on those roads for their operations, and they are essential in bringing people, tourists and investment to the region. For tourists, I am reminded of a comment since I was a wee girl, which is aimed at people coming from the south-head north that they should not forget to turn left at Gretna. The roads are not fit for current, travelling and haulage purposes, and that is causing much upset, dismay and frustration for people locally. In August this summer, I hosted a meeting at Strunrar with representatives from the A75 and A77 action groups. It was also attended by Stena and P&O ferry representatives, as well as MSPs, and I welcomed the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity. It was an opportunity to listen to the local voices. At the meeting, it was concerning to hear Stena and P&O, as well as local people, indicate that they felt forgotten by the Scottish Government because of no clear commitment for investment on those routes. Rather, more worryingly, anecdotal evidence suggests that some hauliers are avoiding using the A75 and using alternative routes to access Ireland by travelling to Hallyhead, blaming the poor infrastructure and the 40-mile-an-hour speed limit as the reason. We cannot let that happen, and I would ask the Scottish Government to investigate and discuss that with the companies. Presiding Officer, I welcome the positive steps taken by the Government for the improvements on the A75 and A77 so far and the work to create the Mable by-pass. I encourage people to provide input into the south-west strategic roads review, and indeed, when elected members met Humza Yousaf at a meeting organised by Jeane Freeman MSP, he encouraged them to continue to feed into on-going road improvement suggestions ahead of the launch of the review. I will take the opportunity to stress to the cabinet secretary how important it is for this SNP Government to ensure that people in the south-west are listened to, are connected to a wider Scotland and the rest of the UK, and most importantly feel as if they are not forgotten. Additionally, I call on the Scottish Government to provide feedback as to when the construction company will be announced so that we can also witness the construction of the Mable by-pass. Presiding Officer, I conclude with a comment made to me from the chairman of Srinrar Development Trust, Romano Percucci, but it reflects across the wider south-west communities with regard to our conversation about the roads. Romano said, we are Scotland, help make us part of Scotland and connect us to Scotland. That is my message to the cabinet secretary today. I call Brian Whittle to be followed by Colin Smyth. Mr Whittle, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I thank Emma Harper for bringing this debate to the chamber. I have drawn the back of my own motion of something similar, so we only need to have one debate about this. Ever since coming into this Parliament, to be honest, this has been on the agenda. One of the first things that I attended as an MSP was a meeting down in Dumfries with the then cabinet secretary, Humza Yousaf, and the Deputy First Minister. That room was full of local councillors, MSPs, hauliers and shipping agencies. At that point, the cabinet secretary and the Deputy First Minister said that they were there to listen. Hold on another year, and the pressure from the A75 and the A77 action groups meant that there was another meeting in this Parliament here with the cabinet secretary, Humza Yousaf, who once again said that he was here to listen. In recent years, we had the new cabinet secretary, Michael Matheson, at a meeting that, as Emma Harper has already said, was there to listen. That is the reality of the situation. We go all the way back to 2010, when the then First Minister, Alex Salmond, welcomed the commitment of a £200 million investment by Stenna, and a £90 million investment by P&O made a commitment to upgrade the A75 and the A77. In 2011, Alex Neill, who was then the transport secretary, stated that it was a travesty that the previous Labour Government here had not invested in the A77. In 2016, we had Jeane Freeman campaigning leaflet saying, I am working to make sure that we see it started, as promised in the Mable Bypass, as promised in 2017. In 2017, the very same, campaigning leaflet said that the confirmation from the Scottish Government that it will be started in the summer of 2018 to build the Mable Bypass. In summer 2018, the newsletters dedicated half a page to saying that the SNP Government has made Mable safer. Interestingly, it goes on to some length to avoid committing to a specific date. It now looks like Mable will get the bypass that it has campaigned so long for and so it actually deserves. I do not think that it is going to get the one that it does deserve and it does not speak to that bigger picture of what is required around the transport infrastructure of the south-west. Mable has a 20-mile-an-hour limit going through it, and that is to protect the buildings and the people's safety on a trunk road. It is worth noting that I have a map on the wall in my office and it shows the whole of the trunk roads in Scotland and where the 20 and 30-mile-an-hour limits and 40-mile-an-hour limits are on the whole of the trunk roads. If you look at the 75 and the 77, it is littered with 20-mile-an-hour, 30-mile-an-hour. You get to Ayr and from Ayr you can get all the way to Aberdeen or you can get all the way to Berwick. If you get on the 75, once you get to the M74, you can get all the way to Barcelona without coming in contact with another 30-mile-an-hour limit. I think that the reality is, Deputy Presiding Officer, that the south-west office is quoted as the forgotten corner of Scotland. I would go for that. I think that it is being ignored. I drove up and had the great pleasure of driving up the A9. I will take an intervention here. I asked Brian Whittle if he agrees that the fact that we are having this debate today will raise the awareness of the south-west of Scotland so that we can turn around any of the forgotten rhetoric and make sure that the Government is actually paying attention. Brian Whittle, I thank Emma Harper for that intervention. The reality is, I have to say, my colleague here from the Carson and I have been on this campaign since we got in here. Quite frankly, if I say gently to Emma Harper, you are a bit late to the party, quite frankly. We have been talking about this for a long time, and it is only because of campaigns such as the 77 and the 75 action groups that have started to gather that momentum that they have started to pay attention. I am sorry if that upsets you, but I think that that is the reality of where we are. I drove up the A9— The members in this last minute. I drove up the A9, which is a fantastic road. It is a real pleasure to drive up the A9. It is a fantastic road. That road is going to be dualled. I will talk about electrifying it before we get any work done—we will work on the 75, 76 and 77 and the A70. It is time that the south-west has the investment that it so virtually deserves. It is not just for the economy of the south-west but for the economy of Scotland. Cairnwine is the biggest port in Scotland, and we are losing—at the last time that I spoke to Stenna—6 per cent of business to the Dublin-Hollyhead route. Unless we have the investment, it will affect the economy of the whole of Scotland. Thank you very much, Mr Whittle. The cabinet secretary may recall when he met South Scotland MSPs and members of the A77 and A75 action groups in September. John Campbell, from the A77 action group, laid a pile of envelopes on the table. Inside were numerous improvement plans for the road going back decades, none of which have happened. John even told us that the route for the Mabel bypass was pegged out in 1936 but has never been built. I suspect that the people of Mabel will believe that a bypass is going ahead when they physically see workers on the ground with shovels digging that road. At a time when the Government is pledging £3 billion to dual the A9 from Perth to Inverness, the fact that we are celebrating that just 1 per cent of that level of investment is currently planned for trunk road upgrade projects in the whole of south-west Scotland. It really highlights that we are a forgotten region when it comes to investment in transport. As Brian Whittle alluded to, he can drive over 250 miles from Golspain to Highlands south to Ayrshire without having to go through a stretch of road where the speed limit is below 60 miles per hour. However, as soon as you hit the village of Minishant on the A77, you have to go through not one, not two but eight towns and villages with speed limits as low as 20 miles per hour in the 40-mile stretch to the ferry terminals at Cairnryan. The A75, frankly, is not much better. This is the main trunk road that connects north of England with Cairnryan and the ferry crossings to Northern Ireland, yet the villages of Crockettford and Springhome remain without bypasses and most of the rest of the road is a single-carriage way with limited safe overtaking opportunities. It is the connectivity with those ferry ports that is key. That is why those roads are of strategic importance not just to south-west Scotland but to all of Scotland, the north of England and Northern Ireland. Fundamentally, that is not an issue about the economy. The A75 and A77 carry billions of pounds of products and services to and from Northern Ireland every year. They also serve communities the length and breadth of south-west Scotland, communities whose economic challenges are well documented. Dumfries and Galloway is the lowest-paid region in the whole of the UK. We have a rise in unemployment level at a time when it has fallen nationally. That is before we factor in the chronic problem of outward migration from the region of young people because of a lack of high-skilled, high-paid employment opportunities locally. There is no doubt that the lack of investment in infrastructure, both physical and digital, is a major barrier to growth for existing firms and to our ability to attract new businesses to south-west Scotland. The need to break down those barriers shows certainly well, yet. Willie Coffey Thank you very much for taking the intervention, Mr Smith. Can you tell us why, when your party was in power for £99,207, you only invested £1.9 million in the A77? Since the SNP took power in 2007, we have invested £35 million in the A77. You have seen that. Colin Smith I think that your fine going back many years has been a significant investment that goes from Glasgow right down to Kilmarnock, where Mr Coffey lives. The reality is, however, that there has been no investment. There is currently not a single project in Dumfries and Galloway from this Government to upgrade major roads in that area. That is, frankly, shameful. Frankly, that is something that the Government should take no credit for at all. The fact that the Government has proposed to invest £3 billion in the A9 is fantastic news to people in the north of Scotland. Why are we not getting more of that investment in south-west Scotland? The reality is that we need to break down those barriers for the A75 and the A77. Of course, there will be other roads in other parts of Scotland with overall higher vehicle numbers crying out for investment, but the significant traffic volumes and patterns that tie in with ferry times—much of it heavy goods vehicles travelling at 40 miles per hour—leads to pinch points where journey times on the A75 or A77 are just not good enough for such a strategically important route. The A75 and the A77, frankly, are not acting as economic pipelines for the south-west of Scotland. They are currently a stranglehold on economic growth. In 2011, the then First Minister, Alex Salmond, opened a new Stenafery terminal at Cairnwrae. In his speech, he made a number of grand promises. He made a commitment to the three Rs, regeneration, roads and rail, but in the delivery of all three for the people of south-west Scotland, frankly, it has been fail, fail, fail. In concluding, in the brief time that we have, it is not possible to do justice to the undeniable economic case for investment in the A75 and A77, or to the sheer anger and frustration that there is in south-west Scotland at the neglect that we feel when it comes to the lack of investment in the past. There is a reason why we now have such active passion at A75 and A77 action groups doing a great job raising the profile of the plight of our region's trunk roads, but it is time for the Government to listen to them. It is time for a long-term commitment from the Scottish Government to dual the A75 and the A77. It is time, in the short term, for clear plans for major upgrades and more passing places that will begin the journey towards that goal. Calling for this, the people of south-west Scotland are not asking for favours. What we are asking for is fairness. I call Joan McAlpine to be followed by Joan Scott. I start by congratulating Emma Harper on raising this important issue in Parliament and welcoming the very considerable £30 million investment in the Mabel bypass. I asked about this investment in June this year and was pleased that the cabinet secretary confirmed, in response to my parliamentary question, that the construction provide opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises to bid for subcontractor roles with site-based training opportunities. I understand that peak employment during the construction will amount to 165 people. That is really good news. It is a tremendous testament, as Emma Harper has said, to the tenacious campaigning by local people and the Government that listens. I noticed from the website of the Mabel bypass action group that, as others have said, campaigners have been writing for years to previous transport ministers. The names that were a trip down memory lane, names like Sarah Boyack, Tavie Scott, Nicoll Stephen came up, those ministers did not deliver the SNP's delivering. As others have said, the campaign goes back 70 years, many years of Tory neglect of Scotland's infrastructure, when the Tories were in charge before this Parliament was set up. No, I want to make progress. That was before austerity. During the Labour transport ministers, I mentioned, since the financial crash of 2008, there has been a great deal less money available, but the Scottish Government is delivering. That is all that is more remarkable when you think that, in the ten years since the Tories have been in power in Westminster, our budget in real terms will fall by £2 billion, but we are still delivering. The motion goes on to talk about other roads in the south of Scotland. Again, a similar theme emerges. Other parties carp and carp, but it is the SNP that delivers. Brian Whittle mentioned, a meeting that he was at in Dumfries in 2016, where he attended his first experience of talking about roads in the south of Scotland. It was actually myself who called for that transport summit in 2016, and it was delivered in August. I think that it is Brian Whittle who is a little bit late to the party. In a member's debate in 2012, I pointed out that the six improvement projects identified as priorities for the A75 in the local transport plan of 2008, and they had all been delivered by the SNP just before the Hargrove to Kinman announcement, which was a major upgrade. All those six projects in 2008 in the local plan were delivered by the SNP Government. Contrast that, as I did in 2012, with the previous Labour Government from 1997 to 2007, only one major project was completed on the A75, compared with the SNP Six. Furthermore, in five years to 2012, the SNP Government devoted £36.7 million to special projects on that road alone, and ten years Labour spent £5.9 million. That does not mean to say that I do not think that there is more to do for the A75. I will take an intervention from Colin Smyth. I think that, at the moment, the fact that the Government is committed to spending £3 billion in the A9, which is good news for the people of the north of Scotland, the fact that there are currently no proposals other than the Mabel bypass for the whole of the south-west Scotland means that we are getting a fair share of Government investment at the moment. Joan McAlpine That is Colin Smyth, because I was going to go on to say that I talked about the local transport plan of 2008, which had six project priorities for the A75, which were all delivered. I was really surprised in 2016 to look and see that that plan had not been updated. Colin Smyth was head of economy in Dumfries and Galloway Council at the time, so if he was so keen for the Scottish Government to improve the A75, why did he not get the finger out and tell the Scottish Government what he wanted, what he wanted the Government to do? That is why I called the transport summit to focus everyone's attention— Joan McAlpine No, no, no, no. Excuse me, please sit down a moment. I want to hear the member. I can also say to the OR that microphones do not come on when people are heckling. Please continue, Ms McAlpine. Joan McAlpine The constructive way forward, as I said in calling the transport summit, was to get a focus so that we could update the local transport plan, which still has not been updated, and let the Government know what the priorities were. That was what the Government did. What you need to focus on is to make sure that the Government's national transport priorities, which are outlined in the strategic transport review, contain ideas for upgrading roads in the south-west. In particular, I am interested in the A75. As a result of that, what the Government has done is that it has launched a study. It has commissioned a South West Scotland transport study, which focuses on how to connect D&G in South Ayrshire to key markets. At the moment, the consultants, ACOM, are consulting with people right across the South Scotland important stakeholder groups. I think that it is important that we all come forward with constructive proposals. That is why I have worked with the Juul A75 group. That is why I got the Juul A75 group a meeting where they could brief the previous minister on some of the challenges for that road. However, it is important that we should—other people have talked about the A9—learn from the campaigners on the A9 and feed in to those kinds of reviews. I am confident that, when we do that, this Government will deliver, because this Government has a record of delivering which the Tories and the Labour do not. Thank you very much. I call John Scott. We follow by Finlay Carson. Can I begin by congratulating Emma Harper on securing her motion for debate today, and note that she is part of the current generation of politicians calling for amoebol bypass, and the clear and interest is the resident of Carrick, which has been disadvantaged by the lack of amoebol bypass for many years. Brian Whittle, who has recently nailed his colours to the mast of camp painting for the bypass, as is Jeane Freeman, before her Adam Ingram, Phil Galley, Cathy Jimison, George Fawkes, George Younger, Colonel Sir Thomas Muir, and those are just the ones that I have known. Presiding Officer, if today's debate tells us that the bypass is about to be delivered, I just want you to note that it has been a long time in coming. Indeed, my father told me before he died that the first campaign to have amoebol bypass took place between World War 1 and World War 2, which tells Parliament just how long this has been an issue for the people of Carrick, and that has been confirmed today by Colin Smyth. That a bypass would be a boon for the townspeople of Amoebol is beyond doubt, who have been blighted by the volume of traffic polluting their high street for generations. That a bypass would benefit significantly the people living to the south of Amoebol in Gvern, Ballantree, Barhill, Newton, Stewart and Strunrar is beyond question. International businesses such as William Grant and Sunt based at Gvern with 60 lorries a day on the road, and indeed all businesses, as well as the Irish ferry traffic, will welcome such a bypass, and I hope that on this occasion it will indeed be built by the Scottish Government after so many false dawns. The locally held view is that they will believe it when they see it. Willie Coffey, can you confirm whether you and your party voted against the budget that allocated the funding for the Mabel bypass? John Scott, I can't confirm that one way or other, I can't remember to be frank. However, today's debate encompasses the A77 and the A75, and I want to speak as well about the need to improve the A77 at the bankfield roundabout at Ayr, known locally as the hospital roundabout, where congestion at peak times of day usually makes it on to the Radio Scotland road traffic reports. Southbound traffic in the A77 is often queued back to the Homsdon roundabout, almost a mile to the north of the bankfield roundabout, between 7.45 and 9 o'clock in the morning, as patients and staff make their way to Ayr hospital. Similarly, in the evening traffic can be queued from Ayr hospital to the bankfield roundabout with patients and staff overloading the A713 at that time. It's not just me saying that this part of the A77 from the Whitlets roundabout to the bankfield roundabout needs to be made into dual carriageway. The minister will know that the case was made for this 10 years ago. Jacob's consultancy produced a report for South Ayrshire Council demonstrating the need, which was stag appraised by Transport Scotland followed and is detailed still in Transport Scotland's website at table D, 24.1.1, STPR Objectives, objective 2. In the last 10 years, absolutely nothing has been done about the need to upgrade the A77 from single to dual carriageway around Ayr, between the Whitlets roundabout and the bankfield roundabout, and I can tell Parliament from personal knowledge that the congestion that resulted in the stag appraisal requiring action to relieve congestion and address road safety concerns at that time has only got worse. It's time for another appraisal of this most congested part of the A77 to take place and a delivery plan to be put in place to seriously start addressing the needs of neglected A77 road users along its entire length, but particularly on this section of the A77 adjoining my constituency. I welcome the debate being brought to the chamber by Emma Harper. I find it strange that the debate is about welcoming something that hasn't yet happened. It's years late and it will not deliver the bypass that the people of Ayrshire or Dumfus and Galloway want. That is a bypass that is fit for the future, a dual carriageway with associated cycling walking paths. It is a landmark, however—a landmark of myriocasie. It is a further indication that this Government is not taking the south-west of Scotland seriously. My contribution to the debate is about the further investment in roads and the rail infrastructure in our forgotten part of Scotland. I must say that it is incredulous that Emma Harper and Joan McAlpine can defend the lack of investment that the Scottish National Party Government has delivered in infrastructure in Dumfus and Galloway. However, I would like to make some progress. I will start with a topic that is at the top of my agenda, and the constituents at the moment are the Strunar air railway line. The line was close to all trains until this weekend because of the dangerous air station hotel. I would like to put on record my thanks to Alex Hines and his network ScotRail Alliance team for getting services up and running again. However, we need a cast iron assurance from the cabinet secretary that the task force will continue to meet regularly until the situation is fully resolved. Tonight, he can give us a commitment that trains will continue to run without further line closures. If platform 4 has to be closed again, as it may well do for work in the hotel, we demand that the train service can be run from a temporary platform south of air station. My constituents will accept nothing less. Now to the roads. I have lived only a few yards from the A75 for all— Can I just say to the member that I was reading the motion when we were coming now to the roads? There you go. It was about infrastructure investment, Presiding Officer. I live only a few hundred yards from the A75, and I have done so for almost 45 years of my life. I have lost count of the number of fatalities that have come across along its 95 miles, and the impact that those fatalities have had in families and the communities that come from them. My sad claim to fame is that my great auntie, when a child was the first recorded fatality on that road—one of the very first fatalities in a road traffic accident in Scotland after being hit by a car—only five yards from where my father still lives. The A75 is a euro route, part of the E11, and it has huge importance not only to Dumfries and Galloway but to the whole of Europe, as it is the route to Cairnryan ferry ports, one of the shortest sea crossings to Ireland, yet it is only a stretch of this euro route that is not dual carriageway. We have seen the UK Government dual the roads from Haysham and Holyhead, but here, in what should be the fastest route to Ireland, many parts of the road, as the Deputy Presiding Officer will appreciate, particularly in the western end, have not changed much in decades, earning it the name of the longest goat track in Europe. Only two settlements in the whole east 17 are now not bypassed, and that is Springhome and Crockettford, and the campaign group fight on a daily basis to get a bypass, which would dramatically improve the villager's quality of life. We all know that the route to this class is one of the most dangerous in the UK with a tragic list of fatalities over the years. The fatalities may have reduced, but the stats do not record the near misses or the number of drivers who are frightened every time they take to this route with hundreds of HGVs travelling on its land daily on a road in many places that are not fit to take them. I would not say that I was a nervous driver, but only last night an HGV tailgated me travelling at 60 miles an hour for six miles, and I have its licence number here, swerving on to the wrong side of the road in attempts to pass me. That is not unusual. Last week, a video recorded three lorries side by side travelling up the gatehouse bypass, a gut-churning film, which is the reality of the day-to-day driving on this road. Hugh Gaffney and other residents of the Hockaver have campaigned for years for improvements to the junction to their village. They take their lives in their hands every time they turn the carriageway to get home, and there have been many near misses, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears because there has not been enough fatalities to warrant improvements. That is simply not acceptable. Currently, the roadside maintenance, including road signs, hedges and trees, are not carried out to the proper level making the road even more dangerous. Perhaps, like the community surveys, where the question is often asked whether people feel safe in their communities, we should ask the public that they have to use the A75. Do they feel safe using this road? I can tell the minister right now that there will be an overwhelming no. I urge constituents to respond to the South West Scotland transport study before the deadline of 16 November, and I would urge the cabinet secretary to act on it as a matter of urgency. We have waited long enough for this Government to deliver the South for the South West. For the formation of groups such as the dual A75, the A77 action group, the spring home road safety group, it sends a clear message that the people of South West Scotland have waited long enough. We need action now before we see the ferries leaving Cairn Ryan, before we see companies leaving Galloway and before we see any more deaths on our appalling roads. Thank you very much, Mr Carson. I call Michael Madison to close the Government. Cabinet Secretary, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I like others? I congratulate Emma Harper on securing time for this debate on an issue that I know is very important to her and her constituents. I welcome the fact that some of our constituents are able to watch this on line, no doubt, as a result of the Scottish Government's investment into digital infrastructure in Scotland due to the failure of the UK Government to make the necessary investment into the important infrastructure investments in the Scottish economy. To today's debate, a lot of people laugh at the UK Government on a regular basis, Mr Whittle. The debate reflects a number of the issues that were highlighted to me during the course of my visit to Stranra in August of this year, when a number of elected members participated in the meeting alongside that of the action group for the A75 and the A77. I want to reassure all members here and all those members within those action groups about the Scottish Government's recognition of the importance that transport plays to those living and working in the south of Scotland. That is why we are taking steps to address some of those matters. Members have already highlighted the fact that there has been calls for a Mabel bypass from the point when John Scott was reflecting on his farer stories of the requirement for a bypass many years ago. We heard from Colin Smyth on the fact that it was pegged out apparently back in the 1930s. As Emma Harper said, there has been calls for it for some 70 years. The good news is that this Government is going to deliver a Mabel bypass and the process is presently out to procurement, which is going well and should be completed by December of this year. As I note the interest that Ms Harper has in this matter and setting out who that will actually be, once that procurement process has been completed, we will be in a position to be able to announce who the contractor will be in taking forward that important piece of work. The importance of this project of the Mabel bypass is one that will help to separate out local traffic, get into the town of Mabel and also to separate out that traffic, which is going further afield, including those who are travelling on to the ports and the rest of the A77. For resonance in Mabel, there is absolutely no doubt that the £30 million worth of investment into this particular bypass will have significant benefits for those who live and reside in the Mabel area. It is predicted that the bypass will reduce the traffic on the high street of approximately some 50 per cent, and the number of heavy goods vehicles going through the town is estimated to reduce by some 90 per cent. I have absolutely no doubt, Presiding Officer, that will deliver significant benefits to those in the Mabel area and those who live within the town itself. I want, like others, to recognise the way in which those who have been involved in pursuing the issue of bypass for Mabel over many years and the way in which they have conducted the process of engaging in this whole exercise. I want to pay tribute to them and congratulate them on the way in which they have pursued the issue, particularly the Mabel bypass committee, on the important contribution that they have played in helping to secure the investment into delivering the Mabel bypass, which will benefit future generations. I want to offer my thanks to them for their contribution to this over the years. Members have raised other issues in relation to the wider transport infrastructure in the south-west of Scotland, particularly to the A75 and to the A77. I recognise that that is extremely important in providing key links to the port of Cairn Rhine. Will it be for people who are making a daily commute or businesses freight, leisure journeys or those who are travelling over to the island of Arm? The members will recognise that taking forward plans for investment, particularly significant investment, into our trunk group process. There is a process that has to be gone through in order to identify the best option for pursuing any such investment. A key part of that is to make sure that the type of investment is one that will deliver the outcomes that we are looking for. That process is already under way. We have already started the process of drafting the new national transport strategy, which will set out the vision and the outcomes that we are looking to achieve with our strategic investment into Scotland's transport infrastructure, including for the south-west of Scotland, with key priorities being in the economy, equality, climate and health. As we complete that process, the next step will be the second strategic transport projects review, which will set out where we will make our strategic investments over the course of the next 20 years. That will include the transport network within the south-west of Scotland. That process has also started. It has started with the south-west Scotland transport survey, which is already under way. It is very clear from the feedback that I have had from officials from the meetings that have taken place that there is a real interest in participating in that process. For example, in the stakeholder meetings that have taken place to date, for example, one of them, there were some 80 individuals invited to it and 60 attended the workshop in order to have input into the process. The online survey, which is part of the study's exercise, was launched on 19 September, and so far, 2,500 people have contributed to that process. This is a study that has been taken forward in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Council, East Ayrshire Council, South Ayrshire Council, the Ayrshire Roads Alliance, SPET and the local regional transport partnership, who are all on the project group driving that forward. That will allow us to look very specifically at the issues that have been highlighted by those who have contributed to it, which so far have included issues about improving community bus services, improvements to the A75 and A77, the impact that freight traffic is having on the road network and the resilience of the road network when incidents occur, all of which are important issues that the study will now be able to give further consideration to as we move forward. I will give way to Mr Whittle. Just for the people who are watching this particular debate, can you perhaps give us some sense of a timescale as to when this will be finished, when we will feed into the overall strategy and when, potentially, there will be troubles in the ground? The study should be completed by the end of this year, which will then feed into the strategic transport projects review, which will commence into next year and into 2020. That will set out the national picture of the strategic transport investments that we will make in the years ahead. That process is ahead of a number of areas in Scotland where that study has not been undertaken today, so there is already progress being made on that matter. I have absolutely no doubt that it will flag up a number of actions that need to be taken within the south-west of Scotland. I am very conscious of time on that matter, but I hope that it gives an assurance that ways of government are listening very carefully to the views of those within the south-west of Scotland on what their priority should be. The study that we have commissioned over the course of the past few months will allow those views and those voices to be captured and to make sure that we make the right decisions in the future about what that transport investment should be in the south-west of Scotland. However, I am pleased to be able to confirm to the chamber that, despite the many decades, the generations where people have been waiting for a bypass to be delivered for Mabel, this Government will be delivering it, and we will set that out in the weeks ahead. Thank you. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting of Parliament.