Politics: Poor broadband issue had to be raised again in Parliament

Since my last column, there has been a seemingly endless series of extreme weather warnings and events.

No sooner had the heavy snow started to let up, than we were hit by not one but two named storms – Isha and Jocelyn – which tested our local resilience and preparedness.

I’m glad to say that, although there was some inevitable disruption to roads and power supplies, lessons learned from previous extreme events such as Storm Arwen meant that disruption was minimised or resolved relatively quickly.

I’d like to thank the emergency services, engineers and local volunteers who helped speed the recovery from these storms.

Yet again, I find myself raising in Parliament the poor digital connectivity in Scotland, particularly here in Banff and Buchan.

Out of 650 UK Parliament constituencies, Banff and Buchan has dropped from sixth to fifth from bottom of the league for superfast coverage.

Only 86.3 per cent of premises in my constituency have access to superfast broadband (defined as 30 Mbps or more), compared with the national UK average of 97.8 per cent and a Scottish average of 96.0 per cent – the lowest of any of the four nations.

While telecommunications policy is reserved to the UK Government, it was the SNP Scottish Government who promised that Scotland would have 100 per cent superfast coverage by 2021, after they took on the responsibility for the local rollout of broadband across Scotland.

Clearly, that did not happen, yet the First Minister just last week said: “all homes and businesses across Scotland can currently access a superfast broadband service.”

When criticised for this poor performance, all the SNP can say is: “but it’s reserved.”

But this is just classic SNP deflection.

If the Scottish Government hadn’t taken on that responsibility, how could they ever have promised to deliver it under their much vaunted "Digital Scotland" and "R100" initiatives?

The truth is that the SNP have flat out failed to deliver on their promise.

Recent information gained by my office stated that not a single connection had been made across the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency through the R100 North contract.

I will not let the SNP continue to sidestep accountability while our region suffers from some of the worst digital infrastructure.

It's high time they either step up and deliver on their promises or step aside and make way for more competent management.

Another SNP failure is the pitiful offering of funding to local authorities, particularly Aberdeenshire Council, from whom we hear of potential budget cuts running into the tens of millions, which could severely impact essential services like winter road maintenance.

The proposals rumoured so far include reducing the salt purchase for gritting the roads.

This is alarming, particularly after witnessing the challenges posed by recent weather conditions as mentioned above.

I urge the council to prioritise the fundamental safety and wellbeing of our local communities when making these critical financial decisions.

This historic Banff Bridge has recently been assigned top priority for repair by Aberdeenshire Council.

If this bridge were to become unusable, it would have a devastating impact not just on Banff and Macduff but on everywhere north-east of the A96.

I have long advocated for a new road crossing and for the current bridge to be used for "active travel".