This week I attended a standing room only public meeting in Dalgety Bay Church where hundreds of people packed out the hall to express their concern and frustration that developers are once again trying to get planning approval to build houses on land to the East of the village that has time and again been […]
There is a lot of talk these days about community empowerment and I have to say that when you go beyd the rhetoric it is sometimes difficult to find any substance. I have been doing a fair bit of work around the Community Empowerment Bill making its way through the Parliament and I will be […]
This week I met with staff from Marie Curie to learn more about their work and the services they provide in Fife and across the country as well as to promote the ‘Marie Curie’s Great Daffodil Appeal 2015’ aimed at raising money to support Marie Curie’s work in Scotland. I have been aware of the […]
West Fife Enterprise launched their new Employability Academy recently and has been very busy recruiting in the Cowdenbeath area. Their Employability Academy offers a variety of courses aimed at unemployed 16-64 year olds who are looking to update their skills and gain recognised qualifications and valuable work experience and they are keen to hear from […]
High Street on the agenda Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley met this week with staff from Boots the Chemist who are based on the Cowdenbeath High Street to hear their views on the High Street and their operations in the town. Mr Rowley said he was very impressed by the enthusiasm of the local staff and […]
I spoke in the two debates leading up to the budget and in the debate on the local government finance settlement. There was, in my view, a number of shortcomings in the budget that were of such significance that I would not vote to support this year’s budget brought forward by the Deputy First […]
Rail services and railway stations are an important part of the public transport infrastructure in the Cowdenbeath constituency with railway stations attached to the Fife Circle located at Cardenden, Lochgelly, Cowdenbeath, Rosyth, Inverkiething and Dalgety Bay. I believe that this transport link can be supported better with more un to date stock but generally this […]
This week the Scottish Government brought forward their Community Charge Debt (Scotland) Bill, a piece of legislation designed to write off all outstanding Poll tax debt. In practice the vast majority of this debt has already ether been effectively been written off or is uncollectable due to the law of negative prescription and the length […]
Yesterday I asked the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning (Angela Constance) how the Scottish Government was supporting colleges and other adult learning providers to improve adult literacy and numeracy, and what progress has been made in tackling poor basic skills levels in adults. The response I received was disappointing not only for me […]
I am concerned that the budget being brought forward for this year by the Finance Secretary disproportionately cuts the budgets of local councils who end up taking a bigger share of the austerity cuts. For me this is of real concern given that councils are already suffering from the fact that the council tax freeze […]