I have been out and about in local ward again. This time I travelled over to Port Ellen to view some of the flooding on local roads that have been raised by my constituents on numerous occasions. The road near Port Ellen Primary has an almost constant stream pouring down it when it rains heavily. During the times of year when the temperature drops and the road freezes over it will become a real hazard unless fixed.
I then travelled to the Tarbert and spoke to numerous local businesses about the various challenges that face them in rural Argyll.
After hearing from so many of my constituents in Muasdale and Tayinloan I was delighted to meet them in person to see first hand some of the problems they are facing. I share their concerns about the management of NHS Highland, speeding, unused buildings, road conditions and slow internet speed. Afterwards I was pleased to attend the West Kintyre community council meeting where I heard about some of the fantastic work they are doing.
With roads and infrastructure quite rightfully being brought up by almost everyone I speak to I decided to speak to Jim Smith the head of roads and amenity services about the plight we face across my council ward particularly on the Islands of Islay and Jura where we have a huge amount of heavy industry due to our world famous distilleries.
I, as always, made my view very clear that our roads desperately investment. It's a fact the Argyll and Bute council has seen the funding it receives from the Scottish Government reduced limiting what can be done at a local level. I would implore the Scottish Government to give special status to our local council and some of our Islands in particular when in comes to infrastructure funding.
The following day after the PPSL meeting in Kilmory I attended Islay's community council meeting via video link.
I try to speak to, email back and where possible meet in person everyone who contacts me with an issue. I'm proud to fight for every part of my ward all year round.
Cllr Alastair Redman