ELECTION 2021: Road 'craters' and housing crisis amongst top priorities for Ross-shire candidate Molly Nolan in first 100 days' pledge
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Liberal Democrat candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, Molly Nolan has today set out what she pledges to do for Ross-shire in her first 100 days if elected as the area’s MSP.
Ms Nolan has promised to put local issues at the heart of Holyrood’s political agenda and "knock heads together" to see through solutions to local issues.
Ms Nolan said she will work with “whoever I need to in order to get meaningful change on local issues and put recovery first”. Her initial commitments to county if elected are to:
Urgently raise the state of the crumbling Ross-shire roads network with the Scottish Government
Lobby ministers to move more quickly to tackle the housing crisis facing Ross-shire
Begin work on a cross-party Rural Communities Bill to require the Scottish Government to take Ross-shire’s unique needs into consideration when creating legislation
"When it comes to housing in Ross-shire, I know first hand how second homes are pricing people like me out of the communities we grew up in. Knocking on doors from Lochcarron to Tain, I have seen just how many holiday lets sit empty."
She said: “If the people of Ross-shire choose me as their representative, my pledge to them is that I will work with whoever I need to in order to get meaningful change on local issues and put recovery first.
“The state of the roads is an issue across Ross-shire. The craters scattered across both Easter and Wester Ross need a long term investment plan. I am determined to knock heads together - Highland Council, the Scottish Government and the UK Government must work together to find a way forward. If elected, my main mission will be to facilitate that knocking together of heads.
“When it comes to housing in Ross-shire, I know first hand how second homes are pricing people like me out of the communities we grew up in. Knocking on doors from Lochcarron to Tain, I have seen just how many holiday lets sit empty. Meanwhile, we have thousands of Highlanders declaring themselves homeless. It cannot be right that Scotland still has one of the most concentrated land ownership patterns in the world, with over half of all private land owned by just 432 landowners. I'm under no illusion about how the housing situation in Ross-shire requires radical solutions. But unless land reform policy is put at the top of Holyrood's political agenda, we simply are not going to get the change we need.
"Across the board, Scottish Government policies require rural proofing to make sure they work for people in Strathcarron as much as they do for residents of the central belt.
“If elected, my first 100 days will be spent putting recovery first; putting the issues that have plagued Ross-shire for far too long back on the parliamentary agenda; and bringing local people along with me so that their voice is heard - and actioned - at every opportunity.”