THE A77 Action Group will take their petition for a duel carriageway between the Whitletts roundabout to Cairnryan to the Scottish Government this week.

Campaigners will address parliament on Thursday, September 14 in a bid to get them to commit to upgrading the A77 to turn it into a ‘fit for purpose’ road in as short a time as possible. 

Some 26 ferries from Ireland dock at Cairnryan on a daily basis with thousands of vehicles travelling north on the A77 when they disembark.

Members of the group argue that capital investments need to be made on the entire section from Whittletts Roundabout down making it ideally dual carriageway to the ports in Loch Ryan.

John Campbell of Maybole, teamed up with the Action Group and will be at Holyrood this Thursday.

He explained: “Five or six MSPs drove along the A75 this week from Gretna to Stranraer but I want them to drive along the A77 to they can see how bad it is.

“Thousands of jobs have been lost over the years in Maybole and Girvan because of the roads. 

“We are quite excited about this meeting but want it to solely to focus on the A77.

“We do not want it to turn political as that is not our agenda and we refuse to go down that road. MSP Brian Whittle has given us a lot of support when others haven’t. 

“Brian Whittle is the only one who has shown interest but some other MSPs are beginning to play catch up. 

“But they are taking achievements for progress made by the group.”

The A77 Action Group wrote to the Scottish Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf, and asked him to come and visit them and learn about their work.

Mr Campbell continued: “We had not heard anything back until yesterday (Wednesday, September 6) when we received an email saying he would be delighted to meet with the group and listen to our concerns.

“This will be the first meeting we will have with him. I think he realises now the pressure [on him] and the publicity we have got so far.

“We want that meeting to take place in Cairnryan, then we can show him how big the problem is. 

“There are 26 ferries per day and thousands of lorries and cars travelling from the port.”

John is urging the people of Ayr to join Maybole and South Carrick in their A77 campaign for the duel carriageway.