With lockdown starting to ease many of my constituents are increasingly raising concerns about local and trunk road conditions, grass verges that need cutting, ditches/culverts and drains that are becoming overgrown and flooded and the need for long overdue maintenance at our many graveyards and cemeteries. While it is very understandable that some of these works were put on the back-burner during the recent coronavirus pandemic. In my opinion it is now time for these matters to be addressed.

With winter approaching and an inevitable increase in traffic on our roads from tourists visiting late and possibly staying longer due to coronavirus concerns, it's clear that our struggling roads network will face a two pronged assault. Our hardworking front line roads men can only use the resources they have on hand and local authority budgets across rural Scotland continue to be hit the hardest despite an increase in available resources that the Scottish Government has on hand.

Despite all these financial challenges that lay ahead for the Kintyre and Islands ward I will continue to lobby all year round at both a local and central government level for a better deal for my constituents.

Cllr Alastair Redman