I met with Brechin Cllr Ruth Leslie-Melville and Cllr David May, convener of Infrastructure Services, to discuss the flooding in Brechin and the role the council has played so far to alleviate the problems.

It is no surprise that Brechin residents are alarmed by the threat of flooding. It is clear that the council have done what they can from their roads budget, but they do not have the resources to fund what is now a £13 million project.

Furthermore, the removal of the dedicated government grants has thrown plans for flood protection schemes into complete disarray. Adding to the confusion is the phased introduction of the new Flood Risk Management Act which changes local authorities’ responsibilities and powers.

Surely the SNP government cannot expect councils like Angus to meet such significant development and delivery costs from local budgets. I back Cllr May’s call on the Scottish Government to fund the schemes in Brechin and across Angus to support local residents and businesses. It is surely obvious to the SNP Government that flooding is a national issue that needs national funding.

Angus, Brechin, Environment, Flooding

I am calling on the Scottish Government to follow through on its fitness manifesto and help to finance a new swimming pool for Forfar.

I visited Forfar’s current swimming pool with local independent Councillor, Colin Brown and met with the staff at the pool. I was very impressed with Forfar’s swimming pool and have heard excellent reports of the service given by staff. The existing pool offers the best facilities it can, given the age and size of the current building.

However, it is clear that the pool cannot meet the needs of all Forfar residents going forward, including the youngest in the community. As a father of a four year old, I myself know how important it is to allow toddlers to get confident around water by making learning to swim fun. Forfar families could really do with a pool tailored specifically for their kids’ needs.

A new facility would allow young and old, fitness fanatics and leisure swimmers alike, to go swimming together. Pools can be an excellent meeting place for the whole community.

Angus Council is aware of the need for a new pool in the town. However, with the council’s allocation from central government set to be slashed, the Scottish SNP Government needs to follow through on its fitness manifesto and invest in health at the heart of Angus and Forfar.

Forfar, Health, Leisure, Sport

I recently visited the Royal Montrose Golf Club and met with vice-captain, Brian Ritchie to discuss plans for the club’s bicentenary celebrations.

Brian discussed the club’s prestigious history as the 9th oldest golf club, including its royal patronage in 1845, along the club’s central role in defining the modern game and popularising the sport in America.

It is clear that the club have worked very hard, and planned a first class programme, which is being backed by local businesses and the council. I am sure the year will prove to be a huge success not only for the club but also for the town. The celebrations will, I hope attract more tourists to Montrose and Angus as well as the excellent links course and be a boost for all of Montrose’s excellent golf clubs.

I was also given a tour of the clubhouse and the changes that have been made to make the club more friendly towards visitors. By coincidence, the club’s impressive new signage was being put up during my visit.

I hope that residents of Montrose, Angus and beyond will support the club’s celebrations, as the club has made great efforts to welcome visitors. Along with the Mercantile and Caledonian, Montrose’s golf clubs provide excellent local facilities for the town.

Celebration, Golf, Montrose, Sport

A few days after the Haiti earthquake, aid supplies began to arrive at the Port-au-Prince airport. Reports emerged that supplies were not being distributed amongst concerns over security, with UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon calling for extra troops to be sent to the country. Reports also emerged of looting and lawlessness amongst the population and major concerns were raised about the ability to distribute food in those circumstances.

However, an alternative view was taken by Andy Kershaw, in The Independent, where he wrote an excellent article “Stop treating these people like savages”.

It soon became clear that priorities had become warped in the country, when a 15 year old girl was shot dead through the head for stealing pictures.

The BBC, whose Matt Frei had initially reported major security fears, drawing criticism, then published its own piece “Misguided fears test Haitians’ patience”. It was clear that the Haitian population were getting desperate, and a major misunderstanding was brewing, with potentially disastrous consequences.

I was particularly frustrated to read this quote from one charity worker, in another article on the BBC New website, “What is delaying Haiti’s aid?”

John O’Shea of Irish charity Goal told the Guardian newspaper he could not allow aid workers to move into Haiti from the Dominican Republican because he had “no guarantee that the people driving them are not going to be macheted to death on the way down”.

I found this comment extremely frustrating. On the one hand you have observers on the ground saying that the population was generally calm and dignified, but understandably getting impatient that aid wasn’t getting through. On the other you have an aid worker in another country worried that he was going to be “macheted to death”. The two positions seemed at fairly opposite extremes. I felt that John O’Shea’s attitude was grossly unfair and did a great disservice to the people of Haiti, and his choice of the words “macheted to death” hugely overplayed the likely risks aid workers faced.

From the same article on the BBC News website was the comment :

“If we distribute food all at once, some people will take more then they need and there is the risk of them selling food items, rather than it reaching the people that need it.”

So the response was to deny aid to all starving Haitians to prevent some people profiting from it. If food was being sold, at least it is getting through to hungry people. The concerns over looting got so heated that Haitian police employed a shoot-to-kill policy for a 15 year old girl stealing paintings. These people were desperate for food after 4 or 5 days with no relief. To me, it felt as if property rights were more important than feeding starving people.

I have seen no reports of security issues once aid was distributed, and just a day after John O’Shea’s “machete” quote, Haitians were happily receiving aid.

To me it demonstrates a long held concern I have about our attitudes towards developing nations. The term “Developing Nation” only refers to its economic status. Not the population’s morality, education, scientific understanding, culture or literature. There is no reason to suppose that in the event of such a disaster the population would descend into base violence, or that law and order would break down. And reports indicated quite the opposite. As Andy Kershaw said, we need to “Stop treating these people like savages”.

Aid, Development, Foreign Affairs, International

By ignoring reform of the House of Lords, George Brown’s recent announcement of a referendum on replacing the first past the post system for the House of Commons does not go far enough.

Whilst I personally believe that there should continue to be a strong link between constituencies and their MP, voters need to be appropriately represented in parliament.

Brown’s proposed Alternative Vote has some strong merits. In Angus, Mike Weir MP was elected with only 33.7% of the vote, so twice as many voters voted against him than for him. Alternative Vote ensures that MPs will have the backing of a majority of their constituency. It will also end tactical voting, by allowing people to vote for the candidate they really want, and not have to worry about blocking a candidate they do not want.

However, this still means that many Angus residents will be represented by someone who was not their first choice. This is the reason that the Liberal Democrats support a Single Transferable Vote in multi member constituencies. To translate that jargon into English, the Lib Dems propose have larger constituencies where there are several MPs and they are voted for in a fully proportional way. STV, like AV means that you vote for the candidates in order of preference.

In Angus, the Council elections already work this way. For parties which have at least some minimum level of support, this means that local people will have at least one representative from the party they voted for. So, for example, in Kirriemuir & Dean, there are 3 councillors, one Liberal Democrat, Alison Andrews and one SNP and one Conservative. This way local people can be comfortable when raising and issue with their local councillor, that they can speak to someone who was their first choice to represent them.

What then of a strong link between an MP and their constituencies? On the one hand, multi member constituencies will still have that link, only the constituency will be larger.

However I personally feel that with a combination of reforming the House of Lords and the House of Commons in a co-ordinated, joined up manner, we can get the best of both worlds. Between the two Houses we can have both single constituency MPs elected by AV, multi member constituencies voted by STV and if necessary, some national or at least regional proportionality.

That is why the House of Lords must be reformed along with the House of Commons. It is incredible that after 13 years and 3 Labour Governments we still have an unelected House of Lords. Few would have believed that was possible back in 1997.

I would also strongly support standardisation of the voting method for UK, Scottish, European and Local elections, so that in all elections, you vote for candidates by order of preference. This will avoid the considerable confusion we currently have of separate voting systems for different elections, sometimes held on the same day. If some proportional element is required, using the top up system used in the Scottish Parliament will be ideal. Personally I am not a fan of voting for a party and feel that voters should always be given the opportunity to vote for an individual to represent them.

AV, Electoral Reform, Parliament, PR, STV, Westminster

With the cold weather returning to Angus over the weekend, I want to remind pensioners that they may be eligible for Cold Weather Payments. However I am disappointed that up to 3,000 pensioners in Angus may miss out on the payment due to the complicated application process.

Cold Weather Payments are due if the temperature drops below zero on seven consecutive days. A payment of £25 is due for each week. Through the cold spell at the beginning of the year, this was triggered 3 times across large parts of Angus.

However, pensioners must have applied for the Pensions Credit to get the payments automatically and current estimates suggest that up to 1/3 of pensioners may not have done so, leaving 3,000 of Angus’s most vulnerable residents unpaid.

It is a scandal that pensioners on the breadline are missing out on these payments. Fuel prices are at an all time high, making Cold Weather Payments all the more important to people already struggling on a poverty pension.

Labour has failed pensioners by creating a complicated system that makes it difficult for them to get the help they desperately need. The Government should be making every effort to identify pensioners who are missing out and get them this extra cash.

Sanjay encouraged pensioners who believe they may be eligible to call their Pensions Office free on 0800 99 1234 or textphone 0800 169 0133. Alternatively they can send a letter to The Pension Service, PO Box 3, Edinburgh, EH91 5AF. Silver surfers can contact them online by clicking here to go to The Pensions Service Contact Form.

Angus residents on other benefits may also be due to receive cold weather payments and they can find out if they are eligible online by clicking here for the Government Direct Website information on Cold Weather Payments or alternatively contact their local Job Centre.

Environment, Fuel Poverty, Pensioners, Westminster