| Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife has called on the SNP Scottish Government to make investment in connecting rural communities, properties and businesses a priority. The calls come following the publication by the Scottish Government of Scotland's Digital Future - Infrastructure Action Plan.
Commenting on the news, Mid Scotland & Fife Scottish Conservative MSP, Liz Smith said:
“I welcome the publication of the Scottish Government Scotland's Digital Future - Infrastructure Action Plan. It is unacceptable that so many people, particularly in rural communities, have to put up with little or no access to good and reliable broadband. It is welcome news that the action plan sets out some welcome targets to work towards addressing the current digital divide, to ensure a step change in speeds by 2015. However, it is clear that many urban areas already have good levels of connectivity with the current digital divide existing between urban and rural communities. I hope that when investment projects are brought forward rural communities will be given the priority they deserve. Digital technology has the potential to radically change the way we live and work and can provide great opportunities for people not only to work from home but to start or improve their own businesses. I have been contacted by constituents in many rural communities such as Kinross-shire for whom access to a broadband connection is still extremely poor. I will be seeking on-going updates from Ministers as to how they are actually making progress.”
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Readers will be very aware of the on-going issues surrounding the proposed Mull Hill wind farm development - several of them debated in the columns of this newspaper in recent weeks. Like other elected members, whether at local or national level, I have my own personal views, but I am also very clear that we have a responsibility to help ensure the debate is as open and as comprehensive as possible and that the process is fully transparent, with no interference on our part when it comes to the planning stages. It is certainly not our job as politicians to pre-judge the outcome of the consultation or indeed any public enquiry which may take place thereafter.
Whether we are for or against windfarm developments in Strathearn (in my case against), we need to be mindful of the fact that there is a responsibility on our part to ensure that all views are heard and that there is a level playing-field. It is on this second aspect, where I have the greatest problem. All too often in Scotland just now, a proposed development will be opposed by residents, the community council, the locally elected councillors, the council’s planning officials and the local planning committee, yet the developer ends up with a trump card (sometimes literally!), manages to appeal and get the decision "called in" by the Scottish Government. Local communities and action groups spend hours setting out their case; so do local authorities who have to devise local plans and identify suitable sites for development before they ask democratically elected local planning committees to make their decisions. But despite this, in so many cases, an appeal is made to the Scottish Government, after which an appointed reporter, will, in the vast majority of cases, impose the will of the Scottish Government and approve the application.
At an extremely well attended Member's Debate in the Scottish Parliament just before Christmas, it was this point - the absence of a level playing-field - which caused the greatest anger and concern. Campaigners feel they stand little chance when it comes to competing against the large financial resources of the energy companies, that the current planning legislation is stacked heavily against local communities and that developments are often a "fait accompli" before they even start. This is what concerns me and many of my colleagues most of all. Democracy appears to have failed.
Indeed, these principles are very similar to those which underpin the current debate about the referendum. Notwithstanding the fact that a crucial decision needs to be made, we first need to be sure that the rules are agreed; that they are seen to be fair, workable, acceptable and transparent.
I fundamentally disagree with the Scottish Government's energy policy - it's refusal to accept nuclear as part of the mix and the resulting over-dependence on wind which is why we are seeing so many turbines springing up across our countryside and why developers think they are onto a good thing. However, that is a different debate. What is so essential now, is that we find a way of introducing a level playing field and that we do something radical to reform the totally inadequate planning legislation which currently exists. Local communities need to be heard and they need to know that their voice matters. People across Strathearn have seen what happened with the Beauly-Denny power line and with several other windfarms in Perthshire and Kinross-shire. That is why they are concerned about Mull Hill.
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