This is a year of reckoning
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I’VE got a lot of hopes in the year 2012 for Caithness and Scotland. We should try to see past the gloom painted by the BBC, by rating agencies and by those who keep saying we are too wee, too poor and too stupid to map a successful course for our nation.
Troubled waters there may be, stormy winds seem to be more frequent and startling temperature changes leap between very cold one week and the hottest Christmas Day on record.
Firstly, we need more clarity from the Babcock partners as they reveal their detailed plans to speed up Dounreay decommissioning. I’ve made it clear to their bosses they are not a new broom, they are a successor to those publicly funded bodies whose task stretches back to the decision to decommission in the first place. To my mind Babcock must ensure socioeconomic inputs to Caithness and North Sutherland to help us upgrade infrastructure and then pave the way to new jobs once the time plan is published in April.
On the maritime front, the cabinet secretary, John Swinney, visited Scrabster in mid-December. He was pleased with the progress to prepare for launching tidal devices in the coming months, perhaps early next year. We can see the growing importance of the west of Shetland to enlarge prospects for oil and gas recovery. Scrabster is the closest mainland port to the drilling. It would be logistically sensible for the Caithness economy to benefit.
I hope the Highland Council can help achieve another legislative commitment for 2012. That’s the one to end homelessness in this part of Scotland. I know these are tough times and local authorities are under increasing pressure but it could, as Shelter, the homeless charity argues, mark a new beginning for Scotland’s homelessness services.
The reform to Scotland’s homelessness legislation will see an end to the current system where only those people deemed to be in "priority need" have the right to a home. The act passed in 2003 effectively extends the right to a home to single homeless people and couples without children.
I met Shelter campaigners in Thurso last summer and I will add my efforts to suggest ways to use empty properties to help solve a very pressing and personal problem for too many of us.
REGARDING health matters, the debates about the best NHS services for west Caithness are firming up. Thanks to public input and the North Highland Community Health Partnership engagement, the Highland NHS board has stated its commitment to quality changes. First off, the brand-new dental unit at the Dunbar should get our teeth into better order for a start.
Back to Holyrood this week, my committee starts to make a new law on agricultural holdings. I will say from the outset it isn’t the last word but it completes tortuous negotiations begun by an all-industry Tenant Farming Forum in 2007 and agreed as a way forward.
However, we read statistics concerning a drop of 10 per cent in farm tenancies since 2005 so the minor changes included in this bill will be a strong cattle prod to landlords who say they need a healthy rented sector as part of their core business. The onus is on the lairds to deliver.
Short duration – five-year – tenancies are not an answer and more secure tenants would be one measure of success. But the calls for a right-to-buy for hereditary farm tenants will not go away and will have to be considered in the Scottish Government’s land reform review later this year.
TOWARDS the end of 2011 the possibilities for a fairer access charging regime for on and offshore renewables to the national grid were published by Ofgem. Alas, our islands would still do worse than the mainland and the London-based energy regulator has yet to embrace Scotland’s key role in delivering energy security.
As for community benefit from renewables, the Highland Council seems to want a slice of the cash offered at record rates by developers to the communities affected. But I understand from councillor colleagues that communities can opt out of any scheme proposed in Glenurquhart Road. And I find it repugnant to hear some councillors call this agreed community benefit a bribe. So play parks in new housing schemes and roundabouts in urban developments are also bribes?
I have written recently in this column about climate justice. 2012 is a year of reckoning. It is 20 years since the Rio de Janeiro declaration. Scottish representatives will be present in June to contribute to the update conference in the same Brazilian city. Needless to say decarbonising our energy production will be a topic that has the full backing of non-governmental organisations, such as RSPB, Friends of the Earth Scotland and WWF, as well as our own Scottish Government. Also the re-wetting of peat bogs to stop the release of excess carbon dioxide and methane will be an urgent topic. I’m very glad our own Environmental Research Institute in the North Highland College of UHI is a key player and the flows of Caithness and north-west Sutherland a carbon sink of world stature.
All politics are local, it is said. On May 3 we have a chance to refresh the Highland Council and seek a firm lead from groups of councillors which state a clear manifesto and seek to localise decisions in a so-called local authority that is actually the size of Belgium. My party will offer its experience and proposals for voters to scrutinise. Meanwhile please see you are registered to vote and can claim a postal vote if you need to.
And, finally, I hope we all get a warm, dry summer and lots of well-earned leisure time to enjoy it.
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