I was delighted to meet with depute leader of the Council Gary Mulvaney and depute policy lead for communities Sir Jamie McGrigor in Kilmory recently.

We discussed the important need to grow Argyll & Bute's rural economy and the various challenges that creates.

We must ensure that more homes and businesses across Argyll & Bute have access to high speed broadband. Our rural economy also needs dramatically extended mobile geographic coverage .

We cannot allow a two tier system of service to exist where small towns, villages and island communities are paying the same as urban areas but receiving a subpar level of service. Across many parts of Argyll & Bute there is a need to build more and better homes, not just in the large towns but in our small towns and villages.

As well as new houses being built, our existing housing stock must be improved, whether it is dealing with mould and dampness problems, better insulation and windows, or just faster over all repair times.

While there will always be challenges facing rural Scotland, Argyll & Bute residents can be assured that there is a large group of Conservative Councillors working relentlessly to see that Argyll & Bute is not sidelined by the urban obsessed SNP government.

Cllr Alastair Redman