AN ELDERLY man would die if he was forced to move house to make way for a new section of the M8, an inquiry into the scheme has heard.
William Barrie, 85, has become ill every time there are discussions about moving from the farmhouse where he has spent half his life, his solicitor said.
Mr Barrie and his wife Christina, 79, are making a last stand against completion of the Edin
burgh-Glasgow motorway, which threatens to flatten their home.
They have rejected both a £515,000 offer to move and revised plans to reroute the road south of their house, which would add £1 million to the construction cost.
Their case was put yesterday at a public inquiry into the seven-mile scheme, which would close the final "missing link" in the M8 by upgrading the A8 dual carriageway just east of Glasgow.
The Barries have been fighting plans to complete the road since moving to Braehead farmhouse, beside the A8 near Bargeddie, 41 years ago.
They want to stay close to their children who live nearby, while their grandchildren have horses stabled at the three-acre site.
Rod McCrae, a solicitor for the Barries, told the hearing: "The loss of their property would mean everything to Mr and Mrs Barrie. If (it] was taken away from them, Mr Barrie could well die."
Mr McCrae earlier told the inquiry: "Every time a discussion takes place, he becomes very ill. The Barries are adamant they want to stay in their house."
The solicitor said the couple had rejected a £1 million compromise plan to reroute the M8 just south of the house as being unacceptable.
It would involve safety fencing being built about 40ft from the house to guard a 40ft cliff down to the new road. Mr McCrae said moving the road further away, so it was 80ft from the house, might be acceptable.
However, the Barries believe previous plans to build the M8 on the current line of the A8, which would save their house, should be adopted instead.
Experts representing the Scottish Government's Transport Scotland agency at the inquiry said it had rejected this 1995 scheme because the option did not separate local and longer-distance traffic.
The scheme was shelved after Labour came to power in 1997, while the A8 has since been upgraded.
Dr Jo Blewett, of Transport Scotland, said: "It does not make sense not to use that corridor and move strategic traffic offline (on to a separate road]."
The Barries were originally offered £410,000 to move, which has since been increased to £515,000.
However, Mr McCrae said they had found it impossible to find a seven-bedroom house with outbuildings and stables in a quiet location in the area. They effectively gave up looking last year.
The solicitor said their home was secluded because it was above the A8, but he admitted it probably would not have remained quiet if the 1995 scheme had been built.
The current project would involve five miles of new three-lane motorway south of the A8 between the Baillieston and the Eurocentral junctions.
A further mile of three-lane motorway would follow the current A8 route between Eurocentral and Chapelhall, with the remaining mile of dual carriageway to Newhouse upgraded to two-lane motorway.
It is expected to cost up to £210 million and be completed in 2013, with journey times reduced by four minutes.
Transport Scotland has said the A8 upgrade would bring "significant benefits" to the Scottish economy and the travelling public.
The inquiry is half way through its expected three-week duration.
The full article contains 612 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
