Among the many concerns raised by constituents across Banff and Buchan, access to effective health care has been coming up more often recently – particularly in the context of our gradual and careful move away from lockdown measures.
I am in regular contact with Aberdeenshire Health and Social Care Partnership expressing these concerns.
For example, I continue to ask the partnership to explain the rationale for not re-opening minor injury units in Banff as well as in Turriff.
I share the frustration of many of my constituents – not just in Banff and Turriff but also in the surrounding rural catchment areas – that we still do not know when or even if facilities will re-open.
We know that these units closed temporarily during the initial lockdown period, but we are now more than a year on with the same scenario.
And I fear that demand will only increase over the winter months which is why I am calling for this issue to be urgently addressed.
I encourage residents to take part in Aberdeenshire Council’s consultation exploring options for a new crossing between Banff and Macduff. Consultation can be accessed here.
The study’s aims, to provide active and sustainable travel opportunities between Banff and Macduff, helping to improve health and reduce emissions, are laudable – but we must also maintain or improve a suitable crossing for vehicular traffic.
The existing road bridge is in a perilous state and we need to look at options to replace or create a new one.
I have been in discussion with Aberdeenshire Council on this and I welcome the launch of the consultation before it closes on November 30.
In a recent debate in the Scottish Parliament, Nicola Sturgeon cemented the SNP’s shift away from their long standing claims to support the oil and gas industry, saying: ‘I don’t think that Cambo should get the green light.’
The Cambo oilfield is just one of several future sources of hydrocarbons that is already factored in to projections of an already declining supply within UK waters.
As we see domestic supplies decline, we are already a net importer of oil and gas.
We are also seeing a corresponding reduction in demand as we see increasing capacity in renewable and low carbon sources of energy, heat and transportation needs.
But that demand still exists.
This short-sighted stance taken by Nicola Sturgeon highlights a lack of real interest in the so-called ‘Just Transition’ in North East Scotland.
We all hear the calls from some extreme environmental groups to ‘stop Cambo’ and to effectively, ‘switch off’ our access to oil and gas but quite frankly, these are not realistic demands.
The UK Government has agreed a world-leading ‘North Sea Transition Deal’ with the UK Oil and Gas Industry which represents a plan – not platitudes – for achieving our net zero objectives.