Like many readers, I was disappointed to learn of Virgin Money’s plans to close their Turriff branch in November.
That customers first heard this news on social media before being contacted by the bank is nothing short of a disgrace.
The news first came out on Friday 21 July, with most customers not receiving a letter from Virgin Money until the following Wednesday and Thursday.
I met with senior Virgin Money staff at the beginning of August and expressed my concerns – including the loss of a valuable local service on which many people depend.
I also attended a public meeting held in Turriff last week to hear concerns directly from personal and business customers, which I will be passing on to Virgin as well as the third partyorganisation, Link, who are conducting a ‘cash in the community’ review.
I was delighted to welcome Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, to my constituency recently.
He came to St Fergus Gas Terminal to announce that the Acorn Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Project was selected as one of the four CCUS clusters across the UK to be operational by 2030.
Acorn, as part of what is known as the ‘Scottish Cluster’ was already the reserve cluster for two of the other sites – in north west and north east England – which were announced in Track-1 of the cluster sequencing.
Along with Acorn, another cluster – Viking – in south Humberside was selected as part of Track-2 of the sequencing.
The SNP have repeatedly and deliberately misrepresented this sequencing approach – which ensures the largest quantity of carbon emissions are captured at the soonest opportunity – claiming that somehow, ‘Scotland was snubbed/ignored/abandoned’, for their own narrow political point-scoring purposes.
The truth is work on the Acorn Project has never stopped.
It was always a question of when, not if, this announcement would come.
I look forward to continuing to work with the project team and UK Government ministers to support Acorn’s ongoing development – unlike the SNP who continue to talk down this fantastic project and the opportunities, such as supporting over 20,000 jobs.
The Prime Minister also reconfirmed the UK Government’s commitment to award 100 new oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea.
The UK Government remains committed to net-zero, but we need to get there from where we are today – which is still 75% dependent on oil and gas.
Even with new oil and gas fields – including Rosebank and Cambo – our domestic oil and gas resources will continue to decline, and it is estimated that even by 2050, we will still be 25% dependent on hydrocarbons.
By shutting down our own oil and gas industry too soon, we put at risk our security of supply and over 200,000 jobs across the United Kingdom – but also the skills, technology and supply chains that we need to deliver the energy transition.
It would also make us even more dependent on imports – which can be 3-4 times the carbon footprint of domestically produced oil and gas.
Whether it is the SNP’s ‘presumption against oil and gas’ or Labour’s ‘Just Stop Oil’ approach, only the Conservative Party can deliver the sensible and pragmatic approach to deliver, energy security today, and the energy transition to net zero.
Finally, I will be holding my summer surgery tour of Banff and Buchan. Please see my website for further details: www.davidduguid.com.
