I was happy to meet with officials from Ofcom in Kilmory recently to discuss the need to expand 3, 4 and 5G coverage as well as dramatically expanding super fast broadband throughout the Kintyre and Islands ward and wider Argyll.

Many statistics on rural broadband coverage are misleading as they use raw numbers of households that have access to better mobile coverage and faster broadband rather than landmass. This means that the providers can give a decent (but not perfect) service to a few of Argyll's largest towns and claim that the majority of households in Argyll and Bute are covered.

As so many of my constituents know all to well Islands, villages, farms, crofts and individual households outside of these larger towns slip though the net and sadly continue to go without. There is no true market solution to all of rural Argyll's broadband and mobile phone coverage challenges that's why we will need to see large scale investment from the increasing central belt obsessed Scottish Government to correct this imbalance.

I will continue to relentlessly lobby for better mobile and broadband coverage for my council ward and the rest of rural Argyll.

Cllr Alastair Redman