Worthy praise for fund-raisers
I was delighted to learn about the national acknowledgement given to a long-established local charity fund-raising team which also reflects well on the generosity of Wigtownshire people.
The Stranraer Macmillan Cancer Support group have been publicly praised by Bruce Port, the charity’s Scottish relationship fund-raising manager, for passing an amazing £600,000 fund-raising milestone.
Mr Port, who travelled to the town to attend a special fund-raising concert, paid tribute to the volunteers who helped raise the massive sum over the 50 years since the town’s group was formed.
I think the majority of readers will know someone who has experienced cancer, be familiar with the dedicated work of Macmillan Nurses and perhaps also be aware of the valuable and much appreciated other support provided by the charity.
I’m grateful, through my Free Press column, to add my own warmest congratulations to the Stranraer group and wish them well in the future.
Hospitals assurance needed
There is wide-spread concern amongst constituents, as was clear at a public meeting recently about the continued closure of community hospitals at Kirkcudbright and Newton Stewart.
They were stopped from operating during the covid pandemic with ward staff transferred to other duties, including providing care at patients’ own homes.
It appears NHS Dumfries and Galloway are reluctant to commit to reopening the hospitals, flagging up staff shortages and suggesting ward teams were currently more effectively deployed elsewhere.
I continue to press the local NHS to, at very least, make a clear commitment to restore full community hospital provision as soon as possible. The respite, palliative and step-down services they provided are, in particular, greatly missed by patients and visitors.
It is also important that the Scottish Government acts on the particular problems faced in the south-west, with a larger than average older population, by helping facilitate increased NHS staff recruitment and training.
SNP Ministers’ commitment to increase the portion of their budget spent on the NHS, deserves, in my view, to be partly used towards easing some of the long-term issues, including demographic challenges facing south-west Scotland.
Planning a better A75
I was pleased that amongst the first announcements of new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was confirmation that the UK Government will fund a £5 million feasibility study into A75 improvements.
This is far from a paper exercise and will be an essential piece of work in establishing meaningful options to take projects forward and examining issues such as scale, timing, location and routes.
Improving the A75, by far our busiest road, has been one of my number one priorities as Dumfries and Galloway MP, generating a great deal of correspondence, discussions and meetings. Not surprising as the road impacts on the lives of so many local people and visitors.
However, as Wigtownshire road-users know all too well, the state of the A77 is equally concerning, also with a high accident rate, and I note that the Scottish Government, which has devolved responsibility for transport, has, at least acknowledged the need for work on both the A75 and A77 in a recent technical report for their latest Strategic Transport Projects Review.
Sadly, SNP Ministers and their anti-road building Green Party partners at Holyrood have so far publicly shown little appetite yet for moving forward soon with any significant projects. However, I’m relieved that at least the UK Government is pushing ahead with vital preparatory work and certainly hope we can work together with the Scottish Government sooner, rather than later.
As I’ve pointed out before on this page, in addition to the obvious safety issues highlighted by recent serious accidents, rightly diligently reported by the Free Press, major improvements to the routes could be crucial to the long-term future of the Cairnryan ferry ports, a key employer and vital part of the Wigtownshire economy.
Lights bring mid-winter cheer
I have enjoyed late afternoon and evening visits to meet constituents in various communities across the constituency, which, as a bonus, provided me with the chance to appreciate some of the impressive Christmas lights displays.
It has been interesting in recent years to see how some displays in town and villages have become brighter and more colourful as time goes on.
In many cases they also reflect a community effort, which can have a positive impact for some town centre businesses, which are well worthy of our support.
On the environmental front, I’m assured that modern lights are usually low energy and do not consume the amount of power that they may have done in years gone by.
I also believe they generate a feel-good effect for many people, just what we need on dark mid-winter nights.
On another positive note, I was pleased to learn that recent concerns about only limited festive lights being possible in Newton Stewart have been overcome thanks to a community-driven effort which has seen more safely installed.
Festive card designers
My wife Ann and I were again greatly impressed with the standard of entries in my annual schools’ Christmas Card competition.
The overall prize winner was a pupil at Belmont Primary School, Stranraer, whose design showed a donkey, a pair of Christmas trees and a vivid starry nativity sky featuring a crescent moon.
A runners-up prize also went to another Belmont pupil, which has had a good record in the competition, with other runners-up awards also going to primary schools at Minnigaff; Sheuchan; Dalbeattie, Loreburn (Dumfries) and St. Michael’s (Dumfries).
It was a tough decision to pick prize-winners because there were so many fantastic designs from the entrants, who were all in the primary five age group.
I would like to express my sincere thanks to all the entrants, teachers and other staff who helped make the competition a success.
New Deputy Lieutenant
I would like to offer my congratulations to Ardwell-based farmer and businesswoman Sally Hair on being appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Wigtownshire. With her experience and intimate knowledge of the area, I’m sure she will prove a great support to Lord-Lieutenant Aileen Brewis.
Season’s greetings
As this is the final issue before the festive break I would like to wish readers a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year.