Speech in the Scottish Parliament debate

26 October 2011

I welcome the debate, which has been a good one, for the most part.

I start by paying tribute to the British Red Cross, which hounded all candidates in the run-up to the election about its ready for winter campaign and had continued making representations to the Government, with some effect.

It has also continued with its public campaigning, which is welcome.

We should pay tribute to it for its efforts.

I welcome the plans that the Government has set out.

Now is a good time to prepare for the winter and we welcome the steps that are being taken.

However, the buck stops with the Minister for Housing and Transport and it is his job to ensure that everything is in place for the winter.

If it is not, we, unlike Jackson Carlaw, will hold him to account.

Stewart Stevenson resigned because he was not up to his game.

I hope that Keith Brown will be.

Perhaps Jackson Carlaw will not be quite so amused about job hunting in the next few weeks, once the leadership campaign is over and done with, but I hope that he will not be licking his wounds too much.

Many members spoke about roads and rightly said that we cannot predict the weather, but we can prepare for it, and that preparation needs to be joined-up.

The gridlock on the M8 last winter, which Anne McTaggart mentioned, was unacceptable.

It was also unacceptable that there was no way out of Inverness by road, rail or air for many days last winter.

We welcome the purchase of gritters, but where will they be sited?

Will it be possible to move them to where they are most needed?

Like many others, I travel on the A9 week in, week out.

The gritters will be much needed there, but when severe weather hits roads such as the M8, they will also be needed there.

Can they be moved around to where they are most needed?

Margaret McCulloch mentioned the issue as well, but in the context of trunk road agencies and councils.

We now have two different contracts, and winter weather is one of the big issues that arose when the trunk road contracts came away from councils.

We need to find ways of making the two contracts work together, with sharing of resources and expertise.

We need better information and updates.

As someone who travels on the A9 a lot, I know that there are few good, robust updates.

I tend to depend on the live cameras that are sited on the road, because they give me the best impression of the road before I travel.

Dennis Robertson talked about how information is relayed to people and about connectivity, which is a big bugbear of mine.

I will not discuss that now, but he is right.

Another issue is that there is little information on rural roads.

We see trunk road information on websites and there are places to look for it, but there is little information on rural side roads.

Information must also be meaningful.

Many members talked about self-help.

It is important that people clear their pavements.

Perhaps the Government needs to legislate to ensure that people do not face litigation for their best efforts to help others out.

We do not want a society that depends on litigation, in which people are afraid to act.

It is also right that people should clear side roads and lanes.

However, I query what Gil Paterson said about ploughing.

We have to be really careful about that. My father drives a snowplough so I know what is involved.

I know the risks that he faced day in, day out.

It is not safe for amateurs who have no training and lack the correct equipment to go out and try to become some sort of vigilante.

We need to look at the issue in the round.

Anne McTaggart talked about the 900,000 people in Scotland who live in fuel poverty and the importance of including them in the winter resilience plans.

That is of the utmost importance. People in fuel poverty are the most vulnerable when temperatures plummet.

Age UK told us recently that 200 people in the UK will die each day this winter due to cold-related illnesses.

That is unacceptable.

The draft budget for 2012-13 proposes a £65 million budget for energy efficiency and fuel poverty.

That is much less than the 2010-11 budget, which was £70.9 million, and the budget will not recover to that level during the current spending review period.

In committee this morning, Energy Action Scotland told us that it would take £200 million a year to deal with fuel poverty and meet the targets, and that £100 million of that would have to come from Government.

We need not only low-cost energy for our people in fuel poverty but insulation.

Again, Age Scotland’s special adviser told us recently that energy prices per unit in Sweden are 50 per cent higher than those in the UK but the average energy bill there is 30 per cent lower, which is due to insulation alone.

It is right that we attack the policies of the big six, but the Government also has a role in dealing with the fuel poor, and it must act now to help them.

I want to say a quick word about winter tyres, which is an issue that I raised with the Government, the Treasury and, indeed, different agencies last year.

It was not very clear to me what the minister meant when he spoke about purchasing more winter tyres, so I would welcome more detail on that.

I have watched health care workers and home care workers travelling in remote areas.

The health care workers had contract cars but were unable to fit winter tyres to them because it was too difficult.

A home care worker who used her own car had fitted winter tyres, so the health care workers followed her around the area that they had to cover, because it was easier to do that.

They commented on the huge difference in traction between the cars without winter tyres and the car that had them.

I have been told that it is maybe not safe to fit winter tyres on cars, because it may give people confidence that they should not have.

To me, though, safety is imperative for the workers who go out and make their best efforts to reach people who need their care.

We need to look again at how we use winter tyres and perhaps snow chains, although I know that there are issues about using those on roads.

The review group’s report refers to vulnerable people, which is an area that we must look at.

We are all aware of vulnerable people who are known to agencies and who maybe receive home care and the like, but there are others who are totally independent under normal conditions but become homebound because of poor weather conditions.

They perhaps cannot get out because of icy pavements or because they are not confident about travelling on the roads, although they need to get food and energy supplies and medicines in.

I understand that a framework for dealing with that situation is being put in place, but I wonder what steps are being taken to track those who may be in need and identify their needs.

In that respect, there will be people who live in rural areas or off-grid who need supplies of Calor gas or oil.

How are such people identified and how are the supplies got to them?

Many other issues were mentioned in the debate, such as the effect of severe weather on the economy and on councils’ budgets.

I am glad that the minister is moving forward and not looking at the fiasco that we had last year, but we need to appreciate those who helped us out of that fiasco.

The Government must take a lead in planning, and it will have our full support if it does that.

Download this speech >>>

  Share This Page