Local Labour politicians have expressed shock and concern over the disappearance of the commemorative plaque on the Queen of the South Viaduct, only days after the official opening.


"At the unveiling ceremony on Friday morning many of those who attended commented on the beauty of the area round the viaduct. Unfortunately it is also rather isolated and thieves have taken advantage of this in order to steal the plaque. It's disgraceful that anyone should remove the plaque as it commemorates Queen of the South's achievements this year as well as recording the opening of this section of the cycleway. If someone has taken this as some sort of souvenir of Queen's success, I urge them to return it."

Labour Group leader Councillor Ronnie Nicholson, a former Community Warden, said:

"While I very much welcome the investment by Sustrans and SWESTRANS in the cycleway, I am very concerned that there is no budget identified within the Council for its upkeep. Unless the Council comes up with funding it will become increasingly difficult to clean and maintain the entire network of cycleways including this new facility."


ENDS

Local MSP Elaine Murray has declared that she is delighted that Annan Athletic will take up the place in the Scottish Football League vacated by Gretna FC.

The Dumfries constituency MSP, who sponsors the strip of one of the youth teams, said:

" I was honoured to be asked to support Annan Athletic's bid for a place in the Scottish Football League and I'm delighted by their success. Annan Athletic FC is a real community football club and its great to see their success being recognised in this way. I'm thrilled too that Dumfries and Galloway will retain its representation in the league.
Henry McLelland and the entire club are to be congratulated on their sterling efforts in securing this achievement for Annan and for the region. "

ENDS

Thursday 3rd July

Motion submitted to the Scottish Parliament:

That the Scottish Parliament congratulates Henry McLelland and all involved in Annan Athletic Football Club on their success in being selected to join the Scottish Football League and looks forward to their participation in the Third Division next season.

The Scottish Government's proposals to introduce a Local Income Tax to replace council tax would be disadvantageous to Dumfries and Galloway, according to local MSP Elaine Murray.

The Dumfries constituency MSP said:

" On the face of it, getting rid of council tax may seem to be popular, however under the Scottish government’s proposals it would be replaced by a increase in income tax bills of at least 3p in the pound. A 3p rate would leave a shortfall of over £800m per annum in local authority funding – Dumfries and Galloway council’s share would be around £23m. Services would have to be severely cut back to find this level of savings, hitting every user of council services throughout the region. The only way to avoid cuts of this magnitude would be to impose and income tax hike of 5p in the pound, which would be paid by anyone who pays income tax, including any pensioner or student who pays income tax. Households with more that one person in work would be hard hit.

Dumfries and Galloway would additional problems if the SNP’s scheme goes ahead. Each local authority would get to keep the additional income tax it raised –- Dumfries and Galloway still has lower than average wages and a larger proportion of retired people in the population, so would collect less tax, resulting in the need for further cuts in services. The Council would have no control over the amount of funding it received. In addition, because Dumfries and Galloway has the lowest rate of council tax in mainland Scotland, residents of the region start paying more in income tax than they do in council tax at a lower rate of income.

At the moment, councils receive four fifths of their income from the Treasury via the Scottish Government. This is collected from general taxation so in fact by far the greatest proportion of council funding is already based on the 'ability to pay’'.Only 15% is raised through council tax. And of course, residents would still have to pay water rates – currently £379 for a Band D property – on top of the local income tax. Water rates are collected with council tax at present in the same bill.

A further tax on work is not the answer to the problems people on fixed incomes such as pensioners. One of my colleagues, Cathy Jamieson, will be introducing a members’ bill to abolish water rates for pensioners. This would be funded centrally and would be much easier to introduce than the Government’s complex and costly proposals. "

ENDS

Tuesday 1st July

Wednesday, 25 June 2008

Constituency MSP Elaine Murray has expressed her concern over the loss of 19 permanent and further temporary jobs at Forest Garden Sawmills in Lockerbie, and believes that these are the latest local victims of the current lack of confidence in the housing market.

Elaine Murray said:

"This is very disappointing news for Lockerbie after the loss of 70 jobs at Forest Garden in October last year, when the garden products operations were moved to England. At that time, the Managing Director assured me that the company was committed to Lockerbie and he was hopeful that the sawmill operation would expand.

Those reassurances were made before the collapse of the sub-prime market in the USA and the credit crunch in the UK, and subsequent loss of confidence in the housing market. Many new housing developments are stalling as potential purchasers fear that house prices may fall. This affects the construction industry and their suppliers.

89 permanent jobs have been lost at this company since October, this is a serious loss of employment for an area like Lockerbie. Hopefully some of the planned public sector construction projects due in the near future such as the construction of the new schools and the regeneration projects in NW Dumfries and Stranraer will provide opportunities for local suppliers.

Retraction in private house building programmes is bad news for Dumfries and Galloway, which already experiences a serious housing shortage. With over 5,000 people on the waiting lists for public sector rented housing, there is no way that the public sector can offer alternative housing to people who would otherwise have considered house purchase."

ENDS

Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Dumfries MSP Elaine Murray, has condemned savage cuts in the affordable housing building programme in Dumfries and Galloway which will see the number of new homes funded by the programme more than halved.

Commenting on information released by the Scottish Government's Housing Minister, Stewart Maxwell, in replies to Written Parliamentary Questions, Dr Murray said:

"I already knew from information which had been released earlier this month that the amount of money which Dumfries and Galloway had been allocated by the Scottish Government for affordable housing had been considerably reduced this year.

"However, it was only when the Minister released the figures on how many new affordable homes were planned to be built this year that the savagery of the cuts became starkly clear. Last year, 276 units were built using the Housing Action Grant. This year, the Minister revealed that only 115 units were planned. A cut of 60%!! And this is at a time when around 5000 applicants are on the Council's homeless lists and many other people are forced to continue to live in unsuitable and inadequate housing. When the Scottish Government should be giving more money to tackle the shame of these homeless lists, in Dumfries and Galloway this type of house building is being more than halved. This is shocking and proves that while the SNP Government in Edinburgh pays lip service to tackling housing shortages, it is plainly not prepared to fund the building programme which is so desperately needed throughout our region."

Dumfries Councillor, Jeff Leaver, who last week attended a seminar organised by Dumfries and Galloway Council on how to increase the level of affordable housing in the region said:

"Between 2005 and 2007, 368 affordable housing homes had been built in Dumfries and Galloway ranking the Council 11th out of 32 local authorities. By comparison, Borders Council had only built 193 units over this period.

"The information which Councillors were given by officials at the meeting on future building was very unwelcome. Not only were we told that the Affordable Housing Investment Grant from the Scottish Government had been slashed from £14 million last year to £9 million in the current financial year, but the council had also been informed that it can't bid for support from a new £25 million fund set up to stimulate council house building because it doesn't have any housing stock of its own. Of the £9 million grant, £4 million was already ring fenced for the current regeneration schemes in Northwest Dumfries and Stranraer, leaving a mere £5 million for building throughout the rest of the region. This sum is woefully inadequate for our needs and as can be imagined, the mood at the meeting was decidedly grim."

ENDS

Contact Jeff Leaver 01387 279205

Tuesday, 24 June 2008

Local MSP Elaine Murray is in Holyrood today on Parliamentary business and is not attending the 'seagull conference' at the Crichton.

Commenting on the content of the conference, Elaine Murray said:

"It's all very well to have experts and local authorities talking about good design and so on, but that's not going to solve the problems we currently have in Dumfries with gulls.

There are practical steps which public and private sector agencies could take to reduce gull numbers in reducing nesting sites and restricting food supply to gulls, but because they cost cost money the steps aren't being taken.

At the beginning of year I wrote to all the Registered Social Landlord and the Council asking them to install gull proofing to prevent nesting this year. All refused. Some RSLs even said gulls weren't a problem for their tenants. I have also been trying in vain for a number of years to persuade St Gobain, the company which owns Jewsons in Georgetown, to gull proof the roof to prevent gulls nesting there. They have also refused.

I have suggested to the Council that they use the existing anti-littering legislation to discourage people from feeding gulls - no action there either. And I've suggested that the use of blue bin bags by commercial properties in Dumfries town centre be replaced by large communal wheelie bins as happens in Edinburgh and other cities, but that suggestion has also been ignored.

The only practical action so far was taken by the Labour Group on the Council, who drove through a planning requirement that all commercial buildings should be gull proofed to prevent nesting.

The problem is of course that all these courses of action cost money, so perhaps the most useful thing the Minister for the Environment Mike Russell could do today is offer financial support from the Scottish Government to help gull stricken local authorities to tackle this menace.

Otherwise, today's summit it likely to be little more than hot air."

Ends

Wednesday 17th June 2008

Local Labour politicians have expressed their concerns that the Concessionary Fares Scheme, which funds free bus and coach travel for every one in Scotland over the age of 60 and for many disabled people, may be facing additional restrictions or the introduction of charges.

In a written reply in the Scottish Parliament, SNP Transport Minister Stewart Stevenson revealed that the budget for the Concessionary Fares Scheme in the current financial year will be £8 million less than in the previous year. Even by year 2010-11 funding will still only be at the level it was in 2007-08. Taking inflation into account, this means that funding will be slashed by £25 million in real terms over this three year period.

Member of the Scottish Parliament for Dumfries Constituency, Elaine Murray said:

"The introduction of free bus and coach travel for the over 60s by the previous Scottish Executive in April 2006 is one of the most popular measures brought in by the Scottish Parliament. It means that older people can now afford to travel all around Scotland in order to visit family and friends or simply to enjoy our beautiful country.

"That funding for the scheme by the current SNP Government is falling in real terms, at a time when bus operators costs are rising steeply and the number of people eligible for passes is increasing, is very worrying especially since Scottish Government have also announced that they are now reviewing the scheme. Given the great benefits to date, I would campaign vigorously against any watering down of the current scheme by possibly changing who is eligible or by introducing charges."

Elaine's concerns were shared by the Labour Group of Councillors on Dumfries and Galloway Council.

Labour Group Secretary, Councillor Jeff Leaver, said:

"Free bus travel for the over 60s has been a great success in Scotland, particularly in remote areas such as Dumfries and Galloway where people often have to travel large distances to access facilities.

"The Labour Group is extremely concerned by this very substantial cut in real terms funding. Not only is the scheme a great benefit in to older residents, it also provides a sizeable subsidy to bus and coach operators. We believe that any reduction in funding will inevitably lead to a loss of service on less well used routes which will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for some folk to use the bus and coach network as a whole. The Scottish Government's view that putting less money into this project will give passengers the same level of service as before is pure fantasy. They should at least be honest and admit that their aim is purely and simply to save money at the expense of older and disabled passengers."

Ends

Contact - Jeff Leaver 07825 633 173/01387 279205

Saturday, 14 June 2008

Dumfries MSP Elaine Murray last week took part in a members’' debate on excess packaging to describe to fellow parliamentarians some of the initiatives taking place in Dumfries and Galloway.

During the debate Elaine Murray said:

"The Ecodeco plant in my constituency, which was opened officially at the end of last year - the minister was present at the ceremony - is a public-private partnership/private finance initiative project run by Shanks and Dumfries and Galloway Council, which will operate for the next 25 years. I mention that it is a PPP/PFI project only in passing, because in other discussions we have heard that the non-profit distributing model is one model that is considered not to work quite so well for waste disposal projects. I am sure that we will all look carefully at the functioning of the project.

The main difference in the method of dealing with waste that the plant uses is that the waste is separated not at the kerbside but after collection, when it is dried and sorted and combustible materials are removed and converted into fuel. That has caused some discontent among householders; I have heard quite a number of complaints about the lack of recycling facilities on the doorstep. I do not think that Dumfries and Galloway Council has managed to get across the message that a different approach to recycling is being taken, whereby the waste is sorted after it is put into the bin, rather than before it is collected.

According to Councillor Leaver, who asked Dumfries and Galloway Council about fuel pellets earlier this week - the pellets that the plant produces are being exported to Yorkshire, where they are being used as part of the energy mix for a cement works. However, I understand that companies in Dumfries and Galloway are interested in purchasing the fuel, which would complete the cycle and demonstrate the usefulness of the approach that is being taken.

The former council tip next door at Locharmoss has been capped and restored. The methane gas that the decomposition of its contents produces is being extracted, converted into electricity and exported to the grid. That process is estimated to be able to produce enough power for about 700 homes and, according to a press release, will cut annual CO2 emissions by about 20,000 tonnes, which provides an environmental benefit that is equivalent to planting 30,000 mature trees. I am slightly cynical about those figures and I would like to see the calculation, because the gas is still burned, which produces CO2.

That is not all that is being done in Dumfries and Galloway. I will mention a few other community activities. There are three community can recycling projects - in Annan, Dumfries and Stranraer. A community composting project is under development in Langholm, in partnership with the Buccleuch Estates. We have four community furniture reuse projects and numerous charity shops that resell clothes and bric-a-brac.

I learned an interesting fact when I worked with Help the Aged during volunteers week this year. I have always worried about what happened to unsold clothes, but I learned that clothes that are unsold or unsuitable for sale are taken to national recycling projects, where all textiles are recycled. None of that goes to landfill, which I find reassuring."

ENDS