An emergency plan is being drawn up to help victims of crashes or inclement weather on one of Scotland’s most dangerous roads.
A taskforce has launched to establish a series of refuge centres along the A9 in Perthshire.
Perth and Kinross Council is working with Transport Scotland and trunk roads authority Bear to identify “places of safety” along the busy commuter route.
Several community groups are now being asked to allocate a local venue, such as a village hall, which would be used as a shelter in the event of a major incident.
The plan was revealed to councillors by the local authority’s health, safety and wellbeing manager John Handling.
“A multi-agency sub group has been set up to look at any issues which may arise along the length of the A9,” he said. “This is to put in place emergency support centres so that people can be taken from their vehicles to safety if something happens on the road, such as severe weather or a traffic collision.”
Mr Handling said: “The idea is to get them to one of these centres so that they can be looked after until they are ready to go on their way. The community groups have all been contacted and the majority have already got back to us, saying they would be very interested in becoming involved.”
When asked what would happen if there was no plan in place, he said: “This actually happened in Alyth. What we did there in the initial stages was follow the template or structure of a standard emergency plan and contacted individuals from the community to talk them through the process of opening up the town hall as an emergency centre.
“I’m now going in to formalise a community emergency plan for the town. Although we didn’t have a recognised plan in place, the team did an absolutely tremendous job of getting the place up and running and looking after people who have been evacuated from their properties.”
So far, communities including Auchterarder, Blackford, Braco, Dunkeld, Killiecrankie and Luncarty have been approached by the sub-group.
The scheme was welcomed by Strathtay councillor Grant Laing.
“Just now is the time to strike while the iron is hot,” he said. “It’s like paying insurance. It’s very, very unfortunate what happened at Alyth, but it shows what can happen unexpectedly.
“Now is the time to publicise this and push it forward to communities.”
He added: “It is especially important along the A9, which as we know can be closed at a moment’s notice. To organise somewhere that emergency services can use as a base is a fantastic idea and I think it needs to be brought to communities which haven’t already thought about it.”