Councillor's Column - Dougie McFadzean - 28.3.24

To my mind this has not been happening in the current council set up and that is why I believe change is needed as soon as possible.

Hopefully the meeting in Kilmory, Lochgilphead on April 4 will be the start of this pathway to making things better. Your council did not listen to you when it decided to increase council tax by 10 per cent, and doesn’t listen to you on so many other levels.

The last few weeks have been hectic as you can probably imagine after the budget announcement, which the administration councillors are trying to back-track on by spinning all sorts of spurious stories about getting ‘extra’ money from the Scottish Government to prevent the tax rise, which is not the case at all. 

On a brighter note, I have been very busy with wide and varied constituency work, and on Friday March 22 I had the pleasure of visiting the reopened Port Ellen Distillery on Islay for a guided tour.

I was joined by Lord George Robertson and Brendan O’Hara MP, amongst others, for a fascinating tour and story behind the rebirth of this iconic distillery.

The visitor areas are stunning and the production area is the epitome of modern engineering.

Ali McDonald, distillery manager, very enthusiastically described some of his plans to develop the distillery and its whisky.

He was very keen to explain the ecological aspects of the plant and that it has been built to be carbon neutral. It’s amazing what can be achieved with modern technology. 

Housing provision remains a critical issue in Kintyre and the Islands and I am still working away trying to get additional housing built and attempting to help free up housing that has been lying dormant and unused.

Our essential service providers are finding it difficult to secure the staff they need, often due to a lack of affordable housing and this must be addressed.

I’ve also been trying to help improve ferry services for our islands and have been speaking with CalMac staff regularly, on your behalf, with some success.

My ward is huge as you can imagine but over the past four weeks I have been all over the place, including Gigha, where I had the absolute pleasure of attending the 22nd anniversary of the community buyout and had the opportunity to meet some of the islanders who drove their dream forward.

I spoke at length with John Martin - and what a character he is - about the history of the buyout and the brilliant plans Gigha has going forward.

Gigha is a fantastic island with amazing people and they have shown how successful community ownership can be. More of this please!