Business park boss hails new roads

Boss says business park benefits from improved road links

William Hill said links to the Bellshill complex, which is near the new M8 and employs more than 6300 staff, are now “excellent”.

Economy Secretary Keith Brown said the £500 million M8, M73 M74 Motorways Improvement Project had been completed on schedule.

Motorists breathed a huge sigh of relief when all lanes opened last week after three years of disruption.

The last works to be completed included the new bridge connecting the westbund A8 from Eurocentral to Shawhead and the slip roads to the M74 and M73 in Uddingston.

Mr Brown admitted that some work will continue “at least until September”, but insisted: “This will be planned maintenance, essential finishing and snagging works, outwith peak traffic times, to minimise any further disruption.”

He revealed more than 20,000 road cones — enough to span the distance between Glasgow and Fort William — were removed from the road network over 24 hours.

Mr Hill, chief executive of HFD Group, which operates Strathclyde Business Park, said: “We have more than 300 businesses and most of the occupiers that we’ve spoken to have reported a journey time saving of 15-20 minutes when travelling in from Edinburgh.

“Those who come in from Glasgow and more local towns have said they’ve reduced their journey times too, predominately because there are no longer any bottlenecks and traffic build-ups.”