Window on Westminster: April

Girvan Pool and Labour's Budget Proposals

The Labour Group's budget proposals were properly costed and approved by the Council Section 95 (Finance) Officer. If accepted they would have meant £1,000.000 set aside as an initial capital sum for a new pool in Girvan and an additional £225,000 spent on roads repairs and maintenance.

I suspect Cllr Oattes did not understand the budget paper, but that's no excuse. It is worth reminding people again that Cllr Oattes voted against this allocation of £1,000,000 towards a new facility in his own ward and voted through a budget which contains nothing towards a new pool in his ward. He also voted against an additional £225,000 spent on local roads.

The Budget and Potholes

If the Council turned its back on extra spending on roads, the Chancellor did not. Amongst the many headline issues in Alistair Darling's Budget was £80m to deal with the pothole situation which was exacerbated so much by the recent bad weather. I can't tell you the number of complaints I have had from constituents on potholes and I had to buy a new tyre myself as a result of driving over them. The Utilities have a very bad record in how they leave the state of the roads after maintenance work and there is a case for them to contribute to restoring the roads network. But in the meantime the extra government money is very welcome so long as the SNP government doesn't squander the extra £8.4m coming to Scotland for potholes on something else.

Antisocial Behaviour

I am shocked by the number of elderly people whose lives are made a misery by the antisocial behaviour of others in their neighbourhood. I am getting far too many complaints at my surgeries. I am glad that this will be high on Labour's agenda in our Election Manifesto. But it will be up to the SNP administration in Edinburgh to do more about this with the resources made available to them by the UK Government

Seaside Towns

I have written before about the Group of MPs who meet to support Seaside Towns. I am a member of the group but its focus is mainly on England and Wales. The government has announced extra help for seaside towns as a result of the group's campaigning work, but again these are mainly devolved matters in Scotland. My intention now is to set up a similar Scottish Group drawn from MPs. MSPs and councils with a seaside interest. We need extra resources not just for the visitors to our seaside towns but, just as important, for the people who live there all year round.

Global Poverty Promise

I took the opportunity of last week's election hustings on International Development in Holy Trinity Church in Ayr to launch locally the Global Poverty Promise. The www.globalpovertypromise.com website is part of a campaign to put the government's promise to raise international development aid to 0.7% of national income by 2013 into legislation. The government has a draft Bill to achieve this but it will have to be approved by the new Parliament after the election.

I always enjoy going to these events organised by the Ayrshire Branch of the World Development Movement. They are highly committed caring people who know their subject and rightly expect you to respond to their questions and concerns