My constituents on Islay and across the Kintyre and Islands ward continue to justifiably raise concerns with me about our rural roads which are sadly often treated as the last link of the transport network.

Despite this they are the most important link in terms of providing access for our rural population. The seasonal issues we face every year with both flooding and black ice are becoming more of a challenge. Our roads-men do all that they can with the resources they are given and we are finally seeing a welcome increase in winter maintenance and an increase in spending on our roads network.

Large scale and continuous spending on infrastructure from central government will be needed to make sure our roads network can keep up with our economic and industrial success.

Rather than a Scottish Government that continues to cut our council's block grant year after year we need them to invest substantially more. Without such investment the rural urban divided will sadly continue to grow.

As your local councillor I will keep fighting hard for a better deal for Islay and the Kintyre and Islands ward.

Cllr Alastair Redman