Holyrood Matters, Highland Edition, Spring 2010

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HOLYROOD MATTERS

THANK YOU for taking thetime to read about my work as oneof your MSPs over the past year.Its been a busy 12 months and

News in brief Attended Lyness Memorial honour-

ing Scottish naval veterans of WWII

Visited European Parliament as part

of EET Committees Energy Inquiry Met with European Languages Com-

missioner to promote the Scots Leid

Lobbied Enterprise Minister for bet-ter rural broadband in the far north

Opened Links Fair at new greenoffices of 5 rural agencies in Golspie

Pressed MoD to take responsibilityfor destroying Laxford Bridge

AttendedCaithness Transport Forum

Opened Far North Beef Event, Lairg

Questioned BBCs Robert Peston inEET Committees Banking Inquiry

Opened Taste of Tain Festival

Welcomed upgrades to 71 ruralbroadband exchanges

Lobbied HIE and Scottish Govern-ment over Dornoch Abattoir closure

Pressed NHS Highland over reviewof Highland Rheumatology Unit

Backed Beauly-Denny decision

Celebrated Council rejection of In-vergordon Waste Incinerator

Met with Bank of England Governorto discuss effective bank regulation

New Wick High School planned A LONG-TIME champion ofa new High School in Wick, Robwas joined by all of Caithness inwelcoming the Scottish Govern-ments announcement in Sep-tember of an unprecedented1.25 billion school building pro-gramme which included plans fora new Wick High School to moveforward. Whether it will be re-built or renovated, Rob will stay

closely involved as the projectprogresses.

Rob tours AlnessJUSTICE SECRETARY

Kenny MacAskill accompa-nied Rob and Cllr Maxine

Smith in November on a visitto the Community Serviceworkshop in Alness, whereoffenders give back to theircommunity by making gardenfurniture from waste wood andcreating glass pictures.

They next visited theAlness Heritage Centre, a hubfor community groups andhome to theAlness Times.

Pictured: Cllr Maxine Smith, Alness Heritage CentreChair Joan Ross MBE, Justice Secretary KennyMacAskill & Rob at the Alness Heritage Centre.

Email: [email protected] Blog:www.robgibsonmsp.blogspot.comWick A: 4 Grant Street, Wick, Caithness, KW1 5AY Wick T: 01955 605 016

Parliament A: The Scottish Parliament, Room M4.06, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP Parliament T:0131 348 5726

Yours sincerely,

there is still much to do before anotherParliamentary term ends in 2011.

2010 promises real progress with agreat deal on the Parliaments agendaincluding crofting reform, protecting ten-ants rights, increasing affordable hous-ing, tackling Scotlands unhealthy rela-tionship with alcohol and debating a newpatients rights bill.

As a member of the Transport, In-

frastructure & Climate Change Commit-tee and Deputy Convener of the Econ-omy, Energy & Tourism Committee Ifocus on promoting green jobs and de-velopment in the Highlands & Islands inorder to help Scotland realise its renew-

ables potential and work towards deliver-ing the ambitious targets set last year inthe world-leading Scottish ClimateChange Act.

I work for you., so if there is an is-sue I can help you with please donthesitate to get in touch. Im honoured torepresent the Highlands & Islands andwill go forward in 2010 with the samelevel of commitment and enthusiasm that

I've delivered for the past 6 years. In themeantime, I hope you enjoy readingabout some of the things Ive done overthe past year.

Newsletter of Rob Gibson, MSP for the Highlands & Islands (SNP)

Published March 2010


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In the Constituency

THE HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS enjoy

some of the most beautiful landscapes inScotland. Equally, the Highlands & Islands isthe largest Parliamentary region in Scotland,constituting over 40,000sq km - roughly thesame size as Belgium! Rob spends a majorityof his time travelling throughout the north inorder to meet with constituents, communitygroups and local businesses.

When not travelling around the constitu-ency, Rob spends 3 days each week in Parlia-ment raising his constituents concerns inCommittees, in debates, with Ministers andwith fellow MSPs across parties.

ROB DEALS with hundreds ofconstituency cases each year, andduring the last 12 months the top 5

issues raised by concerned constitu-ents have been:

Local IssuesLocal IssuesLocal Issueseg. broadbandeg. broadbandeg. broadband

Environment & EnergyEnvironment & EnergyEnvironment & Energy

Jobs & EconomyJobs & EconomyJobs & Economy

EducationEducationEducationeg. school buildingseg. school buildingseg. school buildings

HealthHealthHealth

Draft Referendum Bill Consultation

Were keen on being green!Did you know that more than one-third of the direct mail each household receives in Scotland is thrown away before ever being read?

Highland housing receives over 1.2M

SOCIAL HOUSING pro-jects in the Highlands receiveda significant boost from theScottish Government last De-

cember with a 1.275 millionstimulus being used to build 51new homes across the High-lands & Islands.

ROB JOINED Cllr

George Farlow (pictured),Enterprise Minister JimMather and EnvironmentMinister Roseanna Cun-ningham in Sutherland inSeptember for one of thebiggest meetings in thecountys history.

Rob visits Business GatewayROBS VISIT to the

Inverness Business Gate-way sprang a pleasantsurprise as he found oneof the promotional posters

featured his ConstituencyAssistant Gail Ross.

While Gail is encour-aging new business startups, she and her husbandStewart await the arrival oftheir first child in May.

Here, Rob is outsidethe Milton of Kildary housingdevelopment which exhibitsa new generation of ultra-

warm, eco-friendly homeswhich are setting a newbenchmark for all affordablehouses built in the future.

Sutherland Summit

There, Rob sat on a

panel with other Suther-land leaders, chaired byLesley Riddoch, and an-swered delegates ques-tions on issues such assustainable growth anddevelopment, Gaelic,aquaculture and crofting.

fer of powers to enable Scot-land to become an independ-ent country.

Get onto the ScottishGovernment website to giveyour opinion by 30 April2010.

Its your Scotland.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/government

/draftreferendum.asp

THE DRAFT ReferendumBill set out in the consultationwill be introduced to Parlia-ment later this year and wouldgive the Scottish people theopportunity to have their sayon two questions:

First, whether the ScottishParliament should have moredevolved responsibility.

Second, whether thereshould be an additional trans


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New Migdale Hospital approvedIN RESPONSE to

Robs question in Parlia-ment last November,Health Secretary NicolaSturgeon confirmed an 8million project to build a

new hospital at Migdale inSutherland had beenpproved.

In the Parliament

A COMMON request many MSPs get is

to host an event in the Scottish Parliament.Businesses, organisations and individuals usethis as an opportunity to meet with MSPs andother guests in order to raise areas of inter-est, opportunity or concern as well as to raisethe profile of their activities.

This kind of networking often results innew opportunities for projects and partner-ships which they might not have thought pos-sible before the event. Rob has hosted awide of range of events throughout his 6

years in Parliament. Some that have beenheld over the past 12 months include:

UHI introduced their new Principal andfuture plans to MSPs, the EducationSecretary and guests in February.

CifalFindhorn, Royal Mail, UNITAR andothers celebrated the new HydrogenCorridor from Aberdeen to Peterhead.

The Environment Secretary joined Robfor Scotland Food & Drinks to kick offto their annual Fortnight.

A delegation of female Congolese ac-tivists discussed the DRC crisis & im-portance of empowering women.

Albyn Housing profiled their work in

the Highlands providing quality, afford-able housing to thousands.

Gibson champions new DuthacHouse Care Home

2009 in Numbers

858585 Parliamentary Questions

747474 Committee Meetings

727272 Journeys to Parliament

535353 Motions Lodged

383838 Chamber Debates

101010 Events Hosted

999 Cross Party Group

Memberships

Design of the future Migdale Hospitalprovided by NHS Highland.

(which used to houseTain Royal Academy) in2006.

Since then Rob hasconsistently worked to

ensure that HighlandCouncil rejects anymoves toward privatisa-tion of Council-run carehomes in the Highlands.

ROB JOINED localactivists and backed theHighland Senior CitizensNetwork in March in renew-ing their campaign for a new

local authority built and runold peoples home to replaceDuthac House in Tain.

The group first soughtto replace the aging facility

Burns Night in Tain

AT THE Tain Burns sup-per in the Shandwick Inn Roband Cllr Jean Urquhart cele-brated the life and works ofScotland's national bardRobert Burns.

That night, they alsocelebrated the TNS-BMRBscientific opinion surveyshowing 85% of Scots saythey speak Scots, with 43%speaking it in daily life.

If youd like to subscribe electronically to Holyrood Matters, just let us know using any of the details overleaf.

Thanks for doing your bit!

The Scottish Govern-ment is committed by mani-festo to "promote awarenessand usage of the Scots lan-guage in a variety of set-tings", and as Rob says, ourchildren's self esteem canonly be strengthened by acertain grasp of their ownhistory and languages.

So here's tae a confi-dent tongue in our heids!

approved. This representsa substantial investment inhealth care in East Suther-land and Rob welcomedthe considerable supportfor the project from the

Health Secretary & theScottish Government.


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Email: [email protected] Blog:www.robgibsonmsp.blogspot.comWick A: 4 Grant Street, Wick, Caithness, KW1 5AY Wick T: 01955 605 016

Parliament A: The Scottish Parliament, Room M4.06, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP Parliament T:0131 348 5726

ITS BEEN a busy year for Rob. As well as his work on the ClimateChange Committee, which helpedcreate Scotlands world-leading Cli-mate Change Act, Rob has takenevery opportunity to press the needfor environmental awareness, con-servation and forward-thinking inlegislation, national and communityprojects, infrastructure developmentsand in the economy.

In December, Rob representedthe Scottish Parliament at the globalclimate change summit in Copenha-gen. There, he met with representa-tives from countries such as Argen-tina and Sweden to explain themeasures Scotland has put in place

Nigg must share in clean energy revolution A FULLY functioning Nigg yard

could build & service offshore struc-

tures, creating jobs and capacity forrenewables development. Rob has beenfighting for its revival since first taking

Pictured (from top left, clock-

wise): At the Climate LeadersSummit in Copenhagen; With aVIBES winner, Environment Min-ister Roseanna Cunningham andSEPA Chairman David Sig-sworth while hosting the Vision inBusiness for the Environment Awards (VIBES) in Parliament;With Dennis Scott at Evanton-based Northern Tyre RecyclingCentre, where old tyres areworked into new flood defencesand building foundations;Launching the Waste AwareScotland Campaign to encour-age the re-use of old furniture, ascarce commodity during thiseconomic recession.

Rob nominated Green Politician of the Yearto demonstrate the urgent actionneeded to reduce green housegases and step up renewableenergy production.

At the end of the year, Robwas delighted to earn a nomina-tion as 2009 Politician of theYear at the Green EnergyAwardsa big honour.

Rob is now enjoying a newyear of championing the wealthof green resources and expertisewithin the Highlands & Islandsthe renewables capital of not justScotland, but potentially thewhole of Europe.

create new jobs in the north, but it needs tobe backed up by serious funding to help put

the infrastructure in place at Nigg and atScrabster Harbour on the Pentland Firth in order to realise the norths potential.

office in 2003 and has been press-ing Highland Council to stick to its

policy of compulsory purchase forthe yard. lsakdfj fA clean energy revolution would

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Holyrood Matters, Highland Edition, Spring 2010

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