The Public Exhibition and Consultation Launch

Public Exhibition Aims and Objective

The public exhibitions, virtual and in-person, presented the Preferred Route and information on the assessment process. The specific objectives of the exhibitions were to:

  • Give the public the opportunity to view the Preferred Route, including mainline and junctions;
  • Provide an opportunity for the public to discuss their opinions and concerns of the Preferred Route; and
  • Provide an opportunity for attendees to speak to members of the project team, to understand the assessment process that has identified the Preferred Route, and feed into the design development that will be progressed through to publication of Draft Orders and the Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR).

Attendees were given the opportunity to complete a feedback form and return it either at the exhibitions or by returning it to the Jacobs Stakeholder team by email or post after the exhibition. Online feedback forms were also available.

Exhibition Materials

The in-person Public Exhibition and Virtual Exhibition shared the same materials but in different formats. The contents of the TV screens and the Preferred Route fly through visualisation remained the same but the roller banners were converted into digital boards for the Virtual Exhibition.

The materials presented at the in-person Public Exhibition consisted of 11 roller banners (Appendix A), 4 TV screens (Appendix B), Preferred Route fly through visualisation, brochure (Appendix C), feedback form (Appendix D), advertising leaflets and posters (Appendix I). A hardcopy of the DMRB Stage 2 Report was also available.

The main heading of the 11 roller banners were:

  • Welcome;
  • About the A9 Dualling Programme;
  • A9 Co-Creative Process;
  • The Assessment Process;
  • The Preferred Route;
  • Plan of the Preferred Route;
  • Benefits of the Preferred Route;
  • How the A9 Co-Creative Process informed the Preferred Route;
  • Dunkeld & Birnam Railway Station;
  • Next Steps; and
  • Your Views Matter to Us.

All of the information made available for the public consultation is available to view on the A9 Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing Project webpage.

Exhibition Materials

As part of the Minister for Transport’s Preferred Route announcement (Appendix F) on 20th December 2023, the public were made aware that the virtual exhibition for the Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing section was launched. Details on the in-person Public Exhibition at Birnam Arts and Conference Centre were also published.

Alongside the announcement, the A9 Pass of Birnam to Tay Crossing Story Map for the project also went live. The Story Map includes a latest news page, which continues to be updated, together with details on scheme development, DMRB Stage 2 route options, the Preferred Route, Dunkeld and Birnam Railway Station and information on future assessments. The Story Map also directed site visitors to the online feedback form, thus officially opening the consultation period. Information made available for the public consultation is still available on the Story Map.

To promote the start of the consultation, emails to businesses and community stakeholders were issued to those who previously requested to be kept informed of the project’s progress. A copy of the email is provided in Appendix E of this report.

Transport Scotland issued a press release to national and local media. This was also hosted on Transport Scotland’s website, and was shared across Transport Scotland’s social media. The press release generated extensive Public Relations (PR) coverage in The Press and Journal and The Courier. The Transport Scotland press release can be seen in Appendix F, and the social media posts can be seen in Appendix G.

Similar advertisements were published in a local magazine, The Bridge (Appendix I) and a national newspaper, The Courier (Appendix H) with the consultation itself also receiving broader coverage on social media (Appendix G).

Physical advertising materials were also distributed around Dunkeld, Birnam and Perth, including the Preferred Route Brochure (Appendix C) which contains information presented at the virtual and in-person exhibitions, a leaflet (Appendix I) providing a QR code to the virtual exhibition and information on the in-person exhibition, and a larger poster (Appendix I) sharing the same information as the leaflet. The locations where these materials were left are detailed in Appendix I.