I was delighted to be back on the Isle of Gigha today for yet another successful surgery. I heard from local residents about poor local road infrastructure, mobile phone signal problems, the challenges facing the island's ferry service and most pressing of all the shockingly slow internet speeds in large parts of the island.

Early this year the Which? consumer body analysed speed checker data in 32 council areas in Scotland. With Argyll and Bute sadly but unsurprisingly making it into the bottom 3 of a table that ranks local authority areas by broadband speeds.

As I have said so many times before, fit for purpose digital infrastructure is not a needless luxury but an essential pillar of economic growth. Encouraging people to live, work and invest in our rural constituency will be made all the more challenging with our (in some cases) archaic broadband facilities.

Yes huge progress has been made in digital connectivity, but there continues to be a large digital dived in rural Scotland, including on islands like Gigha, Islay, Jura, Colonsay and the rest of the Kintyre and Islands ward.

I will continue to lobby relentlessly for better digital provision across my council ward.

Cllr Alastair Redman