Cole-Hamilton: We will fight for the fair deal rural communities deserve

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton will use his speech to the party’s Autumn Conference to say that Scotland’s rural communities need a fair deal, after years of always being stuck at the back of the queue.

Speaking in Brighton today (Tuesday 17th September) as the party meets for the first time since its historic success in July’s General Election, Alex Cole-Hamilton will also highlight how the SNP have demonstrated that they can’t be trusted with Scotland’s renewables revolution.

He is expected to say:

“Conference, Scottish ministerial disinterest has harmed every part of Scotland, but that is particularly true for our rural communities.

“We will fight to get those areas the fair deal they deserve.

“They are engines of the Scottish economy, for farming, forestry, food and drink, and so much more.

“So why are they always stuck at the back of the queue?

“30 years to make the deadly A9 safer between Perth and Inverness.

“Broadband speeds that belong in the 1990s.

“Mothers in labour travelling 100 miles to hospital.

“And the worst fuel poverty anywhere in the United Kingdom.

“That’s not a fair deal. Not when you live in a part of the country that is the powerhouse for a renewables revolution that will move us to net zero and guarantee energy security.

“To be shivering in the shadow of wind turbines, unable to heat your home. That’s not a fair deal.

“It’s why the community benefit rules need to be modernised. It’s only right that local people feel the full benefit too.

“And I’m not talking about planters for the high street or a minor refurbishment to the village hall.

“Because it's time to reimagine community benefit. I’m talking about:

• Local energy bill discount schemes
• Affordable housing
• New GP surgeries
• Training to upskill local workers and the promise of good jobs

“Of course, we need the right developments in the right places, but I say the bounty of the renewables revolution must flow through those communities.

“There’s an opportunity to build a rich legacy, but the SNP are already showing they can’t be trusted with that.

“Just three years ago the Scottish Government auctioned our prime seabed to energy companies who will build offshore windfarms upon it.

“Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon and John Swinney, all made a name for themselves by fighting Margaret Thatcher.

“Chief among those criticisms was her spending oil and gas revenues - of failing to create a sovereign wealth fund for the oil beneath the Scottish seabed.

“Indeed, the very foundations of the modern SNP are built upon the idea that this revenue should have been invested and earmarked for Scotland for the long-term, like Norway did. “It’s Scotland’s oil” they said.

“Only now they’ve gone and done exactly the same thing.

“They sold the seabed in one go, and the money will soon be gone.

“Well conference, it’s Scotland’s wind and the SNP have blown it.”