GIBSON DEMANDS ACTION ON NORTH BROADBAND

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson has called on a reduced rate for those receiving far slower broadband than is advertised.

Mr Gibson comments come in the wake of an ofcom report which shows that  the broadband that people received on the whole fell short of the advertised rate.

Mr  Gibson, who once walked out of a presentation from BT on Broadband because of their attitudes to delivering services in the North of Scotland said that this report highlighted the injustice.

The SNP MSP also suggested that people which were receiving vastly below the advertised speed should get a reduction in their internet bills.

"This report shows what most of us in the North and West Of Scotland have known for a long time that namely that providers especially BT give a woeful value for money when it comes to broadband speeds."

"My survey proved that people across the North and West were under provided when to comes to broadband, it is now up to BT and others to deliver on their promise or give a clearer account of what people can accept to receive from their broadband."

"The Scottish Government is pushing hard to upgrade the infrastructure of Broadband in the area, with HIE it successfully managed to secure funding of superfastboradbad for the Highlands and Islands. This shows the commitment there is to providing the means for fast broadband in the region."

"That should be matched by BT and the like. And if they are not happy to d this then they should reduce charges for people who receive slower broadband than is advertised."

Gibson welcomes Battery acquisition

News release

immediate release

02/03/11

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson has warmly welcomed news that an energy giant has acquired Thurso based ABSL Solutions. 

Commenting on the news that Thurso based battery ABSL Solutions has been bought by the worlds largest industrial battery manufacturer EnerSys, Mr Gibson said...

"This is great news, the capacity to develop electricity storage for hydrogen and other renewables output is much enhanced by this acquisition.

"It shows once again that the Far North is in pole position for the Scottish Renewables revolution and that Thurso and Caithness is a key location for growing this type of business."

"The acquisition is testament to the excellence of the workforce and their reputation."

ENDS

GIBSON WELCOMES BOOST FOR DOUNRAEY WORKERS

ATTN: NEWSDESK

News release

For immediate use 28^th February 2011

SNP GOVERNEMNT TO INVEST IN RETRAINING AND REDELPOYMENT IN FAR NORTH

Highlands and Islands MSP Rob Gibson has today welcomed a Scottish Government announcement that £1,148,875 is to be awarded to the Caithness Chamber of Commerce to support the retraining and redeployment of the Dounreay workforce and wider community.

The cash boost comes as part of a £5 million round of funding for various Highland charities  and agencies . The funds will go towards the Chamber of Commerce "Make the Right Connections" support programme.

The cash has been awarded after the recently passed Scottish budget, which aims to protect and create jobs to drive economic recovery in the Highlands.

Speaking on the Caithness cash boost, Mr Gibson said:-

“This will come as welcome news to participants in the admirable ‘making the right connections’ scheme, which carries out important work in retraining and redeploying Dounraey workers.

“As well as concentrating on Dounraey employees, past and present, there is a community element to this scheme, so many more folk in North Sutherland and Caithness will benefit from this cash boost.

“We must do everything we can to minimise the ‘Dounraey impact’ here in Caithness, and support schemes such as this go a long way to ensuring this area is not left with the waste in the wake of the nuclear station's decommissioning 

“The recent SNP budget had jobs, training and skills at its heart. We believe that driving economic recovery in the Far North requires us to keep up a skilled workforce. That is why we have increased Highland apprenticeships by 53% since 2007, and will continue to make Highland jobs a priority if re-elected this year.”

ENDS

NOTES:

For skills, training and education, the Scottish Government's budget will:

* Invest a further £11.5 million to create 25,000 modern apprenticeship places - a record high for Scotland

* Provide 7,000 flexible training opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) - 2,000 more than originally planned in the draft Budget

* Protect the total number of core university places and invest £8 million for an extra 1,200 college places

* Invest an additional £15 million across 2010-11 and 2011-12 in funding for college bursaries

* Maintain the educational grants for pupils and college students most in need (Educational Maintenance Allowances (EMAs)) which were cut south of the border

* Invest £10m to deliver the Community Jobs Scotland programme in partnership with the Third Sector, providing new support for 2,000 unemployed people across Scotland

* Provide additional investment of £5m to support the extension of the Employer Recruitment Incentive to deliver up to 5,000 new jobs for individuals aged 18+, who have been unemployed for 6 months or more and who are participating in the Training for Work programme.

Successful round table meeting on heating issues at Strathpeffer.

Rob Gibson SNP MSP for Highlands and Islands congratulated Ulladale residents who met officials from SSE and Albyn Housing Society to seek an end to huge heating bills for their modern 'affordable' houses.

Mr Gibson offered to set up a round table meeting after residents spoke out to the Ross-shire Journal. They approached his colleague Cllr Jean Urquhart when there electricity bills went sky high. Calum Macaulay chief executive of Albyn and Greg Clarke and his team from Scottish and Southern Energy met with eight residents last Monday 28th February who were able to attend to discuss a way out of spirally debt that has plagued many of them and several of their neighbours.

Rob said,

"I offered to set up this meeting. It was a frank exchange of views. Albyn learned a lot about the residents' concerns and about the flaws in their wet electric heating system that was also installed in Strathpeffer, Ft Augustus and Kiltarlity and perhaps by other housing associations across Scotland just three years ago.

"SSE promised to work with residents to ensure new meters were installed to replace faulty ones, to offer advice and help to heat their homes more efficiently. SSE has already pledged to plan longer smaller payments to cover arrears.

"I hope that this is the start of a new chapter for Ulladale Crescent. I will be keeping in touch with the residents and the agencies to see that progress is made. I will also inform the Housing Minister Alex Neil of the wider problems that have emerged for affordable homes. They may be affordable to build but must also be affordable to heat."

Gibson calls for time table changes to be postponed

News release
immediate release
22/02/11

SNP MSP Rob Gibson has called for the management of Stagecoach

Highland to postpone proposed bus time changes and provide the

traveling public with full data on service costs and usage.

Evanton main bus stop

Mr Gibson said the public deserves answers….

"Constituents in Wick, Tain, Evanton an Ullapool have each

complained of Stagecoach Highland services failing to meet

travel needs."

"Bus users want to know why services are being altered to suit

the management's whims, not the needs of the traveling public"

"Stagecoach Highland must come clean. It must detail the huge

bus pass subsidies received from Scottish Government. What is

it doing to introduce more passenger friendly and eco friendly

buses? How much the soaring price of diesel an impact and how

will it consult customers to encourage more bus use."

"A successful international bus company will have more and less

profitable routes in its portfolio, here across the Highlands

and Islands Stagecoach has a role of essential passenger

carrier. Their managers need to enter true dialogue based on

full facts with their customers. The March timetable change

must be postponed immediately."

" I have written today to the Highland manager with these

demands for disclosure and action. "

Gibson calls for sensible investment of dome money

News release
immediate release
21/02/11

Rob Gibson has called for the NDA to invest the money it was due to spend on the Dounreay Dome in the Caithness renewables industry.

Mr Gibson welcomed the news that the NDA had performed a U-turn on the decision to spend in the region of £1 million pounds on repainting and sprucing up the dome even though it is due to be demolished.

Mr Gibson said that the money should instead go to creating renewable jobs in Caithness and more investment. Mr Gibson said that further investment in the development of Scrabster harbour would be a logical solution.

He said…

"The NDA's decision to reverse the investment in the Dome makes total sense. However the best they could do with the money would be to increase investment in Scrabster Harbour so that it could help equip the Port for the marine renewables revolution which will play a vital part in regenerating the Caithness economy."

"The NDA has pledged to invest £2 million in Scrabster a further sum would help deliver a viable and sustainable future for the entire Caithness economy and benefit the community. An improved Scrabster Harbour would provide top quality long and short tem employment. This is a future worth investing in."

"I hope that the NDA can build on their pledges to the redevelopment of Scrabster Harbour the use of this money would be a great gesture."

ENDS

A Scots speaker? Find out on new site

Published Date: 20 February 2011

By Emma Cowing

DO YOU speak Scots? Well now you can find out.

A new website, entitled Aye Can, has been launched to tell people whether or not their dialect is Scots.

It was created to help answer a set of questions about the Scots language in the 2011 Census.

Although questions about Gaelic have been part of the Census for the last century, this is the first time questions about Scots have been included.

The results will determine how many people in the country speak Scots.

"We're trying to raise people's awareness of the questions in the Census and what they mean," said Michael Hance, director of the Scots Language Resource Centre, who helped formulate the Census questions.

"Our theory has always been that when you talk about Scots people generally struggle to understand what you're talking about, but if you hear the language you instantly recognise what it is and it gives a name to something that is often around us but we don't know how to describe."

Questions posed on the site include "do people in Glasgow speak Scots?" and "is the Doric of north-east Scotland part of Scots?" - the answer to both of which is yes.

The questions also aim to clarify some of the regional differences in Scots and reassure speakers that even if they don't know all the words used, it still means they speak Scots.

Rob Gibson MSP said: "The Census will ask the basic questions of whether people speak, read, write and understand the language.

"In Caithness for example, people are aware they speak in a Caithness dialect, but this will help them understand that they also speak a dialect of Scots."

He added: "We need to have a fundamental understanding of people who feel they speak Scots, and this will help in a huge way. It's a basic tool that we can then apply to education and in all sorts of ways."

The 2011 Census is due to take place on 27 March."