Dear Shona I am writing to you in your capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government with regard to the Short-term let licensing regulations. (Short-term Let Control Areas) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2022 ) Some friends who are involved in the short term letting sector have recently got in touch to ask my advice about these regulations which are causing them great concern. I therefore felt obliged to do some research and I have to confess I was appalled at what I read about these regulations and I am greatly concerned that they could have a devastating effect across the Highlands and Islands. I am sure you are aware that the economy of Argyll and of the Highlands and Islands is dependent on tourism to a much greater extent than the rest of Scotland and as a consequence was and continues to be damaged much more by the Covid pandemic than other parts of the country. As such our tourism accommodation sector will have to bear the effe
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Dear Patrick 14th December 2021 Please accept my congratulations on your promotion. I am writing to you in your capacity as the Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings because I am concerned that the Highlands and Islands, as ever, will bear the brunt of policies which may well work well in urban Scotland but will be extremely onerous for those of us who live in the Highlands and Islands. For example there were suggestions from some quarters during the election campaign in May that fossil fuels should be phased out in the Highlands and Islands by 2030. This is impractical and if attempted could lead to severe hardship. As I’m sure you know the Highlands and Islands suffer from fuel poverty to a much greater extent than the rest of Scotland. This is not just because of our harsher weather but because fuel prices are much higher here and incomes are significantly lower. You will also know for example that electricity is around
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Scotland could reach a net zero target for CO2 output quite easily. That of course is predicated on becoming Independent for the simple reason that virtually all energy powers are reserved to Westminster. Until then we will be dragged along in the slipstream of the UK Government whose agenda is generally not what it seems. As always the prerogative is to firstly serve their financial masters in ‘the City’ and to help the elites remain elite. Serving the public comes quite a long way down the list of priorities and climate change is only interesting insofar as it may provide new ways of hoodwinking and exploiting the population. That is why they work so hard at ‘guilt tripping’ the public. When we are suitably guilty and ashamed and have become dizzy with different accusations it becomes easier to pick our pockets. Climate change they say is all our fault, the fault of the public, the fault of each of us as individuals. Likewise the damage to the global ecosystem, loss of species
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Dear Pippa 18 th February 2020 Firstly I must congratulate you on your promotion and wish you every success in your new position. You may know that I am a long term resident of Easdale island. I feel compelled to write to you today to draw your attention to the problems being experienced with the Easdale ferry service. You may not realise that we have had no ferry service yesterday or today. I suggest this because it has been reported by BBC that according to a Council spokesperson, ‘the Council had a "stand-in" boat to take people to and from the island while Easdale's ferry service is suspended’ and that, ‘Arrangements have also been made with a local boat owner to put a landing craft on standby should it be needed in an emergency’. There is certainly no ‘stand-in’ boat in operation. Islanders have been without a ferry service for two days and there is uncertainty as to when a service will resume. I a
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Argyll and Bute Council have launched their bid to have Oban granted city status and it seems that local opinion is divided over this. I must admit that initially I was unsure about whether this would be desirable or not. I think back to the Oban of my childhood and my teens, a bustling, busy, fun filled town. I have summer evening memories of pipe bands marching down George Street while farmers struggled to recapture escaped beasts heading for the mart, and tourists thronged, engaged in the sights and the sounds and smells of a busy rural seaport, replete with ferries and fishing boats and fishermen landing catches and mending nets. The old station lent a Victorian grandeur to the vista and provided a sheltered meeting place. The replacement is an anodyne brick built station that would be more comfortably at home in Cumbernauld and nearby, lending added local colour and culture, is a branch of “Tesco’s by the sea” that has pretty much extinguished every small business in the t
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The Scourge of Fuel Poverty A friend got in touch as a result of my recent postings on home energy efficiency. He is a pensioner who lives on an island in a recently built and well insulated ‘eco flat’ owned by a housing association. In common with most of Scotland’s islands mains gas isn’t available and so his flat has electric heating. As an environmentally conscious citizen he had signed up to an energy supplier who provided all their electricity from renewable sources. As a consequence of the huge differential in price between natural gas and electricity ( electricity is approximately 5 times more expensive per kWh than gas ), despite living in a modern, well insulated and fairly small flat he was suffering from fuel poverty. The definition of fuel poverty was changed a few years ago but it roughly equates to spending more than 10% of your income on fuel. Scotland suffers significantly more from fuel poverty than the rest of the UK by virtue of its harsher climate and gener