South Scotland MSP and Scottish Labour’s Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Connectivity and Transport Colin Smyth has called on Transport Secretary Michael Matheson to intervene over the current disruption to rail services from Ayr station. The call comes after South Ayrshire council last week stated that inspections of the former Ayr Station Hotel had now deemed that the roof is in a more dangerous condition than had been anticipated. The additional work that will be required is likely to extend the time needed to secure the safety of the building, prompting a continuation of the current disruption to rail services, which currently includes no southbound services between Ayr and Stranraer. Colin Smyth wants the Transport Secretary to step in to insist that a temporary station is opened to allow a reinstatement of some services while work continues at Ayr Station, with one option being the ScotRail depot off Carrick Road, just south of Ayr Station (known as the Townhead Depot). Colin Smyth said, “Hard pressed passengers have been patient and put up with the far from ideal replacement bus services to and from Stranraer and the reduced capacity from Ayr to Glasgow. However, that patience is being tested by the news that there is likely to be further delays to work at Ayr station and they are no further forward in fully reinstating services. The fact there are no services whatsoever south of Ayr is just not acceptable and we need urgent action. That’s why I’ve written to Transport Secretary Michael Matheson and called on him to personally intervene on the matter to get rail services moving. In particular he must insist that efforts to set up a temporary station, possibly at the ScotRail depot off Carrick Road in Ayr, should be speeded up. A temporary station would allow services to start running south of Ayr once again. It is a model that was used in the north of England when flooding hit communities such as Workington back in 2009 and every effort should be made to put in place such a solution for passengers in Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway being hit so badly by this disruption.”

16th October, 2018

South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has warned that any cuts to support to farmers in the region would be “unacceptable”, following the announcement by the UK Government into how farm funding should be distributed around the United Kingdom after Brexit.

An “independent advisory panel” will look at support going to England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and recommend how cash will be shared out after the UK has left the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

However, the review will not look at previous funding decisions, despite the widespread view that Scottish farmers are still owed £160m from the UK Government, after they failed to fully pass on EU convergence uplift payments to Scottish farmers. The UK only qualified for such payments due to the nature of Scottish farming but rather than distribute the funding to farmers in Scotland, the UK Government chose to divide it across the whole of the UK, a move widely criticised at the time by farmers.

Colin Smyth said, “We are just a few months away from brexit, yet there has been a complete and utter lack of clarity from both the UK and Scottish Government over the long term future of farm payments which are so crucial to this area. When the UK Government complete this long awaited review it is vital that we do not see cuts to the share of funding our region’s farmers get”.

“At the present 17 per cent of the UK’s CAP funding comes to Scotland, even although we have less than 10% of the population. The reasons for this are the clear geographical and land quality challenges Scotland’s farmers face compared to other parts of the UK. Any cut in this percentage would be unacceptable. It is also time the UK Government paid up the £160 million they owe Scotland’s farmers for the EU convergence uplift payments. It is deeply disappointing that this review will not address the fact that Scottish farmers have lost out on millions of pounds of funding since 2014 due to the unfair decisions made by the UK Government.”

“It’s time we started getting a fair deal for local farmers from both the UK Tory and Scottish SNP governments.”