June Column

Written by Malcolm Bruce MP on Mon 2nd Jun 2008

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Further decline of our rural post offices

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Although the one post office in my Westminster constituency of Gordon scheduled for closure - at Montgarrie - closed some time ago the reduction in hours for others will come as a disappointment.

Rhynie, Lumsden and Kennethmont will all be reduced to just a few hours a week causing inconvenience for some customers and a loss of income to the businesses.

Rhynie is the busiest and will be displeased to be reduced to two four hour sessions in a week. It will remain in the shop but means that the shop will have to offer the space for the whole week while only receiving a reduced benefit.

Although Lumsden folk will not be unhappy with the move to the shop they are clearly unhappy at the two three hour sessions a week they are offered - especially as one coincides with the over 50s club. There is added uncertainty as the shop and filling station are I am told both going on the market.

Kennethmont is being proposed to have two hour and a half sessions a week.

Collieston will also see a reduction to a few hours - temporarily in the shop but to move shortly to another location - perhaps the village hall if suitable arrangements can be made.

I have been in touch with all the postmistresses and community representatives to offer support for any representations they wish me to make.

Post office closures and cutbacks have been a process of attrition over the last 20 years as they have been stripped of business and may now lose the Post Office Card Account - once a promised lifeline - which could herald the closures of thousands more.

This is sadly not the final word. Those saved today may yet be at risk in the future.

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High oil prices - mixed fortunes for the North East

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Oil prices and oil taxation have been in the headlines recently and are an especially real focus of attention in the North East.

The high oil price is stimulating a massive increase of exploration and appraisal activity as companies try to squeeze maximum production from the reservoirs.

That is obviously good news for service and supply companies and those employed in the sector.

However hard-pressed motorists and hauliers are really feeling the effect and North East businesses are clearly being challenged to stay competitive in the face of record transport costs.

We produce quality products from our traditional industries in the North East but the markets are in the south and they need help to reach them. It should be possible to offer some form of rebate to remote areas to offset the growing disadvantage - and greater incentive to send freight by rail.

In these circumstance we hear the old cry 'It's Scotland's oil'. Well not yet it isn't. I have long argued that Scotland should be entitled to a share in the oil and gas revenues but that should be part of a wholesale reform of UK finances - not a pick and mix solution to suit SNP headlines.

Taxes should be allocated as appropriately to each tier of Government. At present local authorities and health boards which provide most of our daily services are exploited through unfair settlements from both Holyrood and Westminster.

Holyrood gets a block grant instead of an allocation of taxes raised in Scotland to fund the services it provides.

However, to demand a stake in the oil revenues without, for example, offering to take our share of the national debt or social security payments is a one-sided offer made in the certain knowledge that it could not be offered.

That is what the Calman Commission is designed to address and it should look to the work of the Liberal Democrats' Steel Commission of which I am a member which has come up with some radical, fair and transparent proposals.

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Ghana's oil - a second chance and we could help

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I read too that North East companies are hoping to share in the contracts for developing Ghana's offshore oil and gas fields. Given the subsea expertise we have here it should be a reasonable expectation.

Having recently visited Ghana with the International Development Committee

I hope that that country's good fortune will be a blessing for them and not the curse it has proved for so many other African countries.

There are reasonable grounds for optimism. The country is one of the best governed in Africa which appears to have an open and effective democracy.

However, it has suffered under military dictatorships before and its democracy is relatively newly re-established. Its early promise was dashed. This is Ghana's second chance.

There is an election in December. It is to be hoped that this will pass without challenge whether the Government is re-elected or the opposition wins.

It is also to be hoped that a taxation regime for oil and gas will be established that is fair to Ghana, open and transparent and ensure the proceeds flow to the national budget to fund services and development and enable Ghana to fulfil its hopes of becoming a middle income country by 2015 and give Africa a much needed success story.

Training Ghanaians to run their own oil and gas industry may be one of the North East's exports.

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Uncertainty continues over capital projects

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I wonder how long it will be before the gap between SNP promises on capital investment and delivery will become apparent to everyone.

The North East is in major need of new and upgraded schools and leisure facilities, health centres and hospital improvements and transport links - including the Aberdeen By Pass and a commuter rail service between Inverurie and Aberdeen.

Yet these are all being postponed while the administration works out new proposals for funding capital.

Their last statement on the subject talked of £150 million a year. The North East alone could absorb that - yet that is for the whole of Scotland.

I raised this at Prime Minister's questions and although I did not get a satisfactory response it confirmed that there is a gap between what is promised and what is actually happening.

The SNP claim they will deliver £12 billion in capital investment over three years but do not say how, when public agencies have nothing they can bid for and the Scottish Futures Trust which was to be the big answer to PPP is unformulated, may not get Treasury approval and is only talking of £150 million a year.

Meanwhile, how is Aberdeenshire to proceed with seeking funding for new schools, roads, stations, swimming pools etc.? And is it surprising that Garioch Medical Practice have sought their own public private partnership to meet the area's need for a new health centre?

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Slow down and celebrate All Saints

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My family and I enjoyed attending All Saints' Episcopal Church, Whiterashes, for its 150th anniversary service last Sunday afternoon. The church has enjoyed a revival in recent years thanks to the dedication of a few stalwarts and the service, with lusty singing and an address by the Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney whom I first encountered when he was head of the student chaplaincy at Dundee University.

We were also treated to a virtuoso organ recital from the organist of another Alma Mater, the University of St Andrews.

Afterwards, to my children's delight, given their enforced attention during the service (remarkably good they were) we repaired to the village hall for tea, juice, cakes and chat.

I was reminded that I had first visited the hall nineteen years ago to support the village's campaign for a speed limit.

So next time you are driving through Whiterashes slow down and look at its delightful little church.