LD 404 Handing over

Without trying to pre-empt the result of the Scottish Parliament  election in Argyll & Bute on Thursday (and every vote is needed) I am  reasonably confident that the SNP candidate selected to succeed me, Jenni Minto , will be chosen to serve the whole wonderful area at Holyrood  for the next five years. 

It is a very big area too, as I thought yet again when driving the 75 miles from my home to Oban today to spend some time campaigning with Jenni.    

On the pier we  were lucky to meet up with Martin Shields and his wife Aideen, who live on Kerrera and who are both incredibly active in driving that island forward through the many projects now being undertaken by the island's development trust which Martin chairs .   

Aideen is overseeing the introduction of electric bikes in a very imaginative project, but Martin is on the edge of bringing off the biggest achievement so far - a proper usable road which will connect the north and south of the island and transform the place by allowing those at the north to use the vehicle ferry and opening the island up for more people to choose to live there. 

I have been involved in trying to get funding for that road for a decade and it is great to see that , fingers all crossed, contracts will finally be signed in the next few weeks and the basic work should be done by the end of the summer.  I blipped the existing but absolutely terrible  road two years ago and that entry gives some more details of the story.   

Once we had chatted I asked if I could take their picture alongside Jenni, with Kerrera in the background because  the image sums up so much for me at the moment.  

I will be handing over a great job which has been a huge honour and usually) very enjoyable.   I have had the chance because of it to be involved with lots of fascinating communities and seen some amazing work being done by people who live in them.   And I have helped a bit, I hope in navigating the narrows and shallows of bureaucracy , bringing funding and other bodies together and supporting  those who , inevitably,  occasionally flagged a bit at the time it sometimes does take to get what is needed in place.

Time for a change for me though and time for a very capable replacement to do new things in new ways.   A fresh start is always good ! 

(PS My extra picture of Jenni, myself and Brendan O"Hara the Argyll & Bute MP was taken by Kevin McGlynn, a freelance in Oban who has been a great help over the ten years I have been the MSP - thanks.  It has us standing under the Rockfield tree, at the newly converted Rockfield Centre which is another superb project I have been been involved with over the past few years) 

(PPS - all the pictures are socially distanced...a new thing in campaigns but essential during a pandemic)