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Brakes put on A9 rolling roadblock plans

Lorry driver Conor Mckenna.
Lorry driver Conor Mckenna.

Plans to stage a rolling roadblock on the A9 are on hold indefinitely, The Courier can reveal.

The controversial proposals have been shelved following claims that Police Scotland is launching a crackdown on speeding drivers.

According to Conor McKenna who is behind a campaign to raise the HGV speed limit to 50mph, this would make his protest “pointless”.

Around 100 drivers had been primed to take part in the demonstration, which would have seen lorries driven at 40mph in both directions between Perth and Inverness.

The move would have caused major traffic delays and was intended to show the impact average speed cameras would have on the main arterial route through Scotland.

Now, however, Mr McKenna, an HGV driver from Inverness, has been forced to put the plans on ice.

He told The Courier: “It’s sort of been taken out of my hands now. I have been told that the police will be pulling over any lorries that are driving above 40mph.

“They have taken me out of the equation by doing this and I think that if the police are enforcing this speed limit, it will be a lot more dramatic than what we could have organised.

“People are really going to notice the effect it has on the road.”

Although the speed limit is 40mph on single carriageway roads, Mr McKenna claims that lorry drivers often feel pressured to exceed this to ensure traffic can keep moving.

He believes plans to introduce average speed cameras between Dunblane and Inverness would result in increased frustration and more accidents.

As a result, he has launched a bid to persuade the Scottish Government to increase the limit to 50mph.

Transport minister Keith Brown said he would back moves to do this but only if there was evidence to support raising the limit and if it was approved by police.

Mr McKenna remains optimistic about the ongoing debate, which he believes has been sparked by the public backlash against the cameras.

“This has pushed it right to the top of the table,” he added.

“We are looking at every angle we can and I will not hesitate to reintroduce my plans for a go-slow if it looks like the Government is ignoring the problems on the A9. They seem to be listening now, but we won’t let them forget it.”

Superintendent Iain Murray, head of Police Scotland’s road policing department, denied that a crackdown had been proposed and said that enforcement action would be taken as part of their normal duties.

He said: “We would like to reassure all road users that the Trunk Roads Patrol Group will continue to provide a higher level of patrols on the A9.”