Relieved college nursery is saved but plan to axe should not have been on table
What a fantastic victory for all of those involved in the campaign to save the nursery at UHI Perth College.
I could barely believe it when I heard it was to be closed as part of a proposal of extensive cuts introduced by the senior management team.
At the first opportunity I had I went to visit the nursery to talk to the staff and parents who use this lifeline facility to offer them my support.
What I found was a dedicated and thoroughly professional group of staff and grateful parents who, in many cases, would not have been able to continue their studies without it.
This was a crosscommunity campaign involving the college unions, students and wider Perth community.
The nursery will now no longer be included in the cuts consultation package and such has been the success of the campaign the cuts package itself will now be put under further review.
Going forward, I will continue to encourage management to engage constructively with staff and students throughout the consultation period to ensure that their voices are heard, and that disruption to students and teachers is minimised.
But well done to all involved.
The Atholl Gathering kicked off the Highland Games season in style on Sunday prefacing a series of events that I have no doubt will drive the crowds to Perthshire.
We are so lucky to have so many iconic gatherings and a wonderful backdrop to host them.
It also heralds the start of tourism season, which typically brings a welcome boost to our local economy as holidaymakers and adventurers flock to enjoy the region’s incredible array of scenery, leisure activities and hospitality venues.
Pre-brexit, this was always a period of excitement and economic opportunity for our businesses.
However, over the past several weeks I have met with a number of local business owners in the hospitality, tourism and agriculture sectors, and what I have found is that there is a real sense of trepidation about the busy months ahead, primarily due to acute worker shortages.
One such meeting was with a group of Perthshire farmers who told me about how the sector has been brought to its knees, largely because seasonal workers are shunning the UK in pursuit of work within the EU where they are not subject to so much confusing and costly bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, I have been hearing from local restaurants and hotels about how they are being forced to restrict their opening hours because they simply do not have the staff to run at full capacity.
This is an issue that has been created by the UK Government’s bizarre fixation on pursuing a hard-brexit and its reckless anti-immigration rhetoric, and the sad truth is that it is only set to worsen without radical policy change. My SNP colleagues and I remain committed to holding the UK Government to account for its deplorable policy failures on this issue, whilst calling for the unnecessary red tape to be removed for EU nationals wishing to come and work here.