Dave Thompson MSP

IT WAS a pleasure last month to bring a member of the Scottish Cabinet to the Black Isle, when I was joined at the Scottish Ploughing Championships at Tore by Richard Lochhead, our agriculture secretary.

Richard was in Inverness for the SNP annual conference anyway and he was as keen as I was to see the country’s best ploughmen in action just across the Kessock Bridge so we eagerly grabbed the chance to break away from the city centre venue and meet the farming community.

Fine weather accompanied us as we arrived at Croftcruinie, where the Paul and Gammie families had donated the use of about 250 acres for the competition and for the display of ploughing tackle ranging from early single-drill horse-drawn right through to the very latest eight-drill super machines.

Richard and I were delighted to have the chance to meet and chat to many farmers who had been attracted to the Black Isle for the Championships and, on a local level, I was pleased to meet Fraser Maclennan, of Culbokie, who came along with his vintage Ford Major tractor. [see pic]

As with all farming gatherings, the event drew interest from a wide area and we were treated to a fine array of trade stands and craft stalls, giving the event a real family feel in fine weather.

There was more good news for Tore this month too when I was pleased to welcome the news that the school had been awarded almost £2,000 from the Big Lottery Fund’s 2014 Communities programme.

This money will be used to bring in coaches from a local club to offer sports coaching to local children so, you never know, perhaps from this little funding acorn we may one day see the growing success of a child whose interest in sport is awakened by the mentoring that will be offered through this very worthwhile project.

As I write this, I am also awaiting the arrival of Heather Fulton, who teaches Modern Studies at Dingwall Academy, with 25 fifth year pupils to Holyrood on Thursday 10th when they travel to Edinburgh to learn for themselves how Scotland is governed and what MSPs like me do all day.

During their tour of the Parliament, I will join a question and answer session with the pupils and Miss Fulton and will do what I can to send them back up the A9 better informed and hopefully enthused about how their area is represented at Parliament.

As winter draws nearer, national attention is beginning to fall on the number of people who find the high cost of heating their homes leaves them faced with an unpalatable choice between staying warm or saving money to spend on other essentials, such as food.

Such a phenomenon is now known as fuel poverty and is defined as the need to spend at least 10 per cent of household income on heating bills.

Increasingly, as fuel prices rise, I am hearing the concern that this winter more people than ever before will find themselves in this situation.

While the Scottish Government does not have the power to order a reduction in fuel prices, what Holyrood can do is offer assistance to make homes more energy efficient, meaning that less fuel is wasted while maintaining temperatures in homes.

Therefore I was delighted recently when Alex Neil, the Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure and Capital Investment, was able to announce a 35 per cent expansion of funding for fuel poverty and energy efficiency programmes to £66.25 million by 2015.

Mr Neil was also able to announce the immediate addition of £5 million for this winter’s Energy Assistance Package to allow an extra 7,000 people across Scotland to benefit from the reduction or elimination of the cost of improvements to make homes more energy-efficient.

Heat is a basic need and I find it shocking that in an energy-rich country like Scotland, so many find themselves struggling to meet the cost of keeping their homes warm.

Fundamental changes are needed in the regulation of the energy market to tackle the root causes of soaring energy bills but the power to achieve this is reserved to Westminster and I am pleased that the Scottish Government is doing what it can to help.

Picture Caption: Dave Thompson MSP and agriculture secretary Richard Lochhead join Rab Birrell, vice-chairman of the Scottish Ploughing Championships, to admire Fraser Maclennan of Culbokie’s vintage Ford Major tractor during the ploughing championships at Tore.