Rhoda Grant

Labour MSP Rhoda Grant is warning train passengers not to expect a two hour and 45 minute journey time on the Highland Main Line anytime soon.

Scottish Government Transport Minister, Michael Matheson, has stated the quicker journey time is now ‘a long-term aspiration’ despite a commitment made by Alex Salmond, the then First Minister, in August 2008, to reduce train journey times between Inverness and Edinburgh to at least two hours 45 minutes by 2012.

“That promise has disappeared down the track, like many given by this Government,” explained Mrs Grant, who represents the Highlands and Islands.

“The fact that the Transport Secretary hasn’t given a possible date to achieve that past commitment is very concerning. Yet again our region is being placed at the bottom of the pile when it comes to being top of the list of improvements to our rail service.

“Last year campaigners stressed that there was just a paltry few minutes saved on journey time, which is just woeful. There is no doubt the rail system should be nationalised, but in the meantime the Scottish Government needs to live up to their previous promises.”

In reply to a Parliamentary Question, Mr Matheson told Mrs Grant: “The long term aspiration remains to deliver a fastest journey time of 2 hours 45 minutes between Inverness and the Central Belt.”

He said the Highland Main Line Rail Improvement project would be completed in phases between 2014 and 2025. In 2012 services increased from 9 to 11 trains per day in each direction, reducing journey times by an average of 6 minutes at a cost of £1.2 million.

He added phase two will see a £57 million investment providing an hourly service between Perth and Inverness, delivery of a reduction in average journey times by around 10 minutes and more efficient freight operations.

Mrs Grant added: “Until we get more investment in services and infrastructure people will still take to the roads instead of the train and adding to that decision are recent train cancellations. Increase in ticket prices and carriage over-crowding. We deserve better.”

SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
WRITTEN ANSWER
1 February 2019 (Holding Reply Issued 29 January 2019)
Index Heading: Transport Scotland
Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to fulfil the commitment that was made by the then First Minister in August 2008, following a Cabinet meeting in Inverness, to reduce train journey times between Inverness and Edinburgh to at least two hours 45 minutes, and an average of three hours, with the aim of making “railway travel to the heart of the Highlands, in terms of time, competitive with roads… by a mixture of projects, including line improvement, additional passing loops, double-tracking and signalling upgrades”; what improvements projects were introduced, broken down by what progress has been made with each, and, in light of the comment that “the timescale for implementation is 2011-12”, for what reason the target date was not met, and by what date this level of service will be operational.

S5W-20998

Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government’s Infrastructure Investment Plan, published in 2011, stated that the Highland Main Line Rail Improvement project would be completed in phases between 2014 and 2025.

Phase one was delivered as planned in December 2012, increasing services from 9 to 11 trains per day in each direction, and reducing journey times by an average of 6 minutes at a cost of £1.2 million.

Phase two, which is currently scheduled to be completed in December 2019, will see a £57 million investment providing an hourly service between Perth and Inverness, delivery of a reduction in average journey times by around 10 minutes and more efficient freight operations. A fleet of refurbished High Speed Trains is planned to be used for this new timetable offering customers greater comfort and more capacity. We are engaged with local communities regarding calling points with the aim of providing calls at stations which represent maximum benefit for users of the service. The new timetable will also include improvements to the first and last trains. Overall, these plans will provide passengers with better connectivity with the Central Belt and Inverness whilst boosting the economic growth for the whole of Scotland.

The long term aspiration remains to deliver a fastest journey time of 2 hours 45 minutes between Inverness and the Central Belt.

 

Two Highland GPs have joined MSP Rhoda Grant for a meeting in Holyrood with Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.

Mrs Grant, Dingwall GP Miles Mack and Inverness GP Phil Wilson, also a Professor of Primary Care and Rural Health at the University of Aberdeen, outlined their concerns for rural and remote practices under the new GP Contract.

Mrs Grant asked Ms Freeman for the face-to-face meeting and was grateful for the opportunity to outline key issues which other GPs across the Highlands and Islands had also raised with her and with her Labour colleague David Stewart.

The GPs used Caithness facts and figures to outline the problems, stressing that five of the 11 permanent GPs in the area were almost certain to retire because of age in the next five years.

In Caithness, since 2004, almost half of all permanent GPs posts have been vacated with partial replacement with short term locum provision. Three practices have ceased to be independent contractors and have been taken over by NHS Highland.

There were also general concerns about the capacity for under-graduate teaching and the effect on retention and recruitment of GPs in remote areas.

GPs have told the MSPs that the new Contract fails to recognise the unique workload in rural areas where surgeries deal with a far greater range of medical problems – including emergencies that would be dealt with in hospitals in urban areas.

“The main concern is that what’s on the table with the new Contract is an urban model and this just doesn’t suit remote and rural areas,” explained Mrs Grant, who represents the Highlands and Islands.

“GPs are worried it will cause poor continuity of care for patients and that procedures, currently performed at surgeries, are being centralised – for instance for blood tests or vaccinations. This will inevitably inconvenience patients and worsen health outcomes by raising barriers to care.

“The contract states that other health care professionals will be employed to deal with these extra tasks but with rural GP posts remaining unfilled, and shortages of nurses in many areas, how can we expect to find these extra people in our out of the way places?

“There must be flexibility for GPs to retain the old system of care. The new contract’s funding formula has been based, under this new system, on the number of appointments and does not take account of issues in rural areas such as patient and doctor travel.

“GPs in our region cannot wait for another three years to see some movement on this and I’m hopeful that the Health Secretary will find a suitable way forward.”

Prof Wilson added: “We were able to discuss some of the key issues about general practice in rural areas, particularly the loss of permanent GP posts.

“This is a central issue because losing local GPs and replacing them with a range of other practitioners is both expensive for the NHS and deeply unsatisfying for patients.

“Loss of continuity of GP care is also damaging to patients’ health: there is now good evidence that this leads to worsening mortality statistics and it may underlie some of the worrying premature death rate trends recently seen in several rural areas of Scotland.”

At the meeting Ms Freeman said she had “genuinely taken the issues seriously” and discussion would continue with colleagues. Mrs Grant was promised an update in two months.

 

 

Labour has pressed the Scottish government to bring forward a statutory right to food.

 

Labour Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant pressed the government to outline when a proposed Good Food Nation bill would finally be brought forward.

 

The MSP is also writing to foodbank organisations across Scotland to ensure they take steps to make their users’ voices heard.

 

Rhoda Grant said:

 

“We live in a developed nation in the 21st century and it is a national scandal that foodbank use is increasing year upon year upon year. Scottish Labour believe that there should be a statutory right to food, which brings together all of the current policies, gives them a guiding force, and has the power to measure the government’s success in feeding its people. In developing legislation, we believe that people who are most affected by food insecurity should have the opportunity to contribute to how the government can make things better.

“However, we accept that this is challenging, as those most affected by food insecurity tend to be the most marginalised and vulnerable people in society, who are unlikely to have their voice heard.

“I am writing to foodbank organisations in Scotland to find out whether they have any plans to make service users aware of the consultation, and how they are supporting them in submitting their views to the outcome of the consultation.

“While I understand that engaging with the government’s legislative process is not going to be the first thing on people’s minds when visiting foodbanks, I think that it is important that we listen to people who are most affected by the issues discussed, and take account of their views”

 

ENDS

 

Notes to editors

 

Labour’s secured a Parliamentary victory on 13 September 2018 on creating a right to food.

 

Text of Labour amendment:

 

“Calls for a Good Food Nation Bill that has tackling food poverty and the Right to Food at its heart, ensuring a joined-up approach across Government, local authorities, trade unions and public bodies to realise our Good Food Nation ambition.”

 

http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=11657&i=105646&c=2109722#ScotParlOR

 

 

 

 

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant was concerned to learn that five patients travel from Skye to Raigmore Hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis treatment.

When a patient’s kidneys fail, dialysis treatment keeps the body in balance by removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body.

The MSP communicated with the Elaine Mead, Chief Executive of NHS Highland to ask if they had considered installing one dialysis machine into Broadford Hospital for the use of locally based patients. In the response Rhoda Grant was advised that up until two years ago nobody was requiring haemodialysis in the area. They concluded that they were trying to find a local solution to respond to the current need.

Rhoda Grant said: “Patients traveling from Skye three times a week to Raigmore Hospital for treatment is not acceptable in this day and age. This is a particularly long journey to make and also expensive for those having to travel and NHS Highland with regard to expenses. I understand that this is a challenging situation for NHS Highland to address given the fluctuations in demand for such services in the Isle of Skye, but I would have thought having a dialysis machine located in Boardford Hospital would be the answer.”

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP Rhoda Grant was concerned to learn that five patients travel from Skye to Raigmore Hospital three times a week for kidney dialysis treatment.

When a patient’s kidneys fail, dialysis treatment keeps the body in balance by removing waste, salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body.

The MSP communicated with the Elaine Mead, Chief Executive of NHS Highland to ask if they had considered installing one dialysis machine into Broadford Hospital for the use of locally based patients. In the response Rhoda Grant was advised that up until two years ago nobody was requiring haemodialysis in the area. They concluded that they were trying to find a local solution to respond to the current need.

Rhoda Grant said: “Patients traveling from Skye three times a week to Raigmore Hospital for treatment is not acceptable in this day and age. This is a particularly long journey to make and also expensive for those having to travel and NHS Highland with regard to expenses. I understand that this is a challenging situation for NHS Highland to address given the fluctuations in demand for such services in the Isle of Skye, but I would have thought having a dialysis machine located in Boardford Hospital would be the answer.”

Highlands & Islands MSP, Rhoda Grant, welcomes the news that the Ocean Great White rig,  en-route from Singapore to the Kishorn Yard in Wester Ross is the start of a new engagement between the yard and the oil and gas sector. The yard which has been dormant for a while was last in use in the 1990s when the support structures for the Skye Bridge were built there. In 1978 the Kishorn Yard was utilised in the construction of the largest moveable man made structure in the world when the Ninian Central platform was build. At that time up to 4000 people were employed on the site.

 

Rhoda said ” This is excellent news and I hope this first major contract will herald a new beginning for the Kishorn Port which was a company formed in 2008 by Ferguson Transport and Leith’s Scotland. As well as the building of the iconic Ninian Central, other smaller projects were undertaken, but this is the first major contract for 40 years. If the senior Management at Kishorn Port can attract contracts such as this ,then there is a real possibility that the local economy around the scattered communities of Wester Ross will prosper again with new found jobs, which in turn attract more workers and then more money is spent in the area locally.

 

” This is positive news and further supports my plea some months ago for the upgrade of the road that extends between Achnasheen and Kishorn (A890/A896). If we are to promote the availability of this location as a future specialist refurbishment yard for the oil and gas sector we have to do something about the infrastructure, starting with the roads.

 

The rig is being made ready for a drilling programme early next year West of Shetland.

 

 

 

 

Highlands & Islands Regional MSP, Rhoda Grant asked The Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, Mike Russell MSP, during the Brexit statement in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, (18th December) what plans they had for opening up new freight routes to the continent for Scottish produce in the event of a No Deal Brexit. She went on to ask which Ports and routes are the Scottish Government looking at as alternatives to Dover and  what boats are they hoping to procure given they cannot find boats to fulfil their own routes and services?

 

The Cabinet Secretary advised that the Government would have no trouble finding boats as they were different to the ones required for the Western Isles and easily found.

 

Rhoda Grant said “ This is rather ironic. The boat we asked for to cover the Western Isles route from Ullapool to Stornoway was a freight ferry which would in turn free up the Loch Seaforth as a passenger ferry.

 

“It would appear when there is a need for a freight vessel to be found to provide lifeline services to the Western Isles, a ferry cannot be found. However, when we require to move freight to the continent from Scotland, that’s no bother and a number can easily be found. This just shows the level of regard the Scottish Government have for the needs of the economy in the Western Isles.

 

Rhoda Grant concluded “While they are right to make contingencies for a No Deal Brexit and getting our produce to Europe, I would expect them to have the same regard for our fragile island communities who need reliable and accessible lifeline services.

 

 

Delighted to meet with and talk through the role of MSPs with the 2nd Inverness (Kingsmills) Scout Group