Dumfries and Galloway has been named UK Holiday Destination of the Year by fans of the popular BBC programme, Countryfile.  For those of us who live in the region, we are not surprised, we are perhaps a little smug for we have enjoyed the secret all along.  The area is stunning and being here brings … More Holiday Destination of the Year?

The Energy Bill is progressing through Parliament.  It had its 2nd reading in the House on the 18 January and the transcription in Hansard is an interesting read (about 3/4 of the way through under Column 149 with the reading beginning at 4.30pm). The Energy Bill is important to Scotland and to us particularly as … More Energy Bill Progress

When writing to politicians and organisations, you should explain why you are concerned about SPEN’s plans.  You could use the joint Community Council objection as a guide.  Some points made in that submission (and a few more) are summarised below. Ideally, use your own words and emphasise the points that concern you most. • The … More What to Say

So far in our protesting we have tended to aim our concerns towards SPEN.  In this next phase, post 31 August 2015, we need to turn our focus of attention on organisation other than SPEN and make our complaints to them.  We did this to an extent with our elected representatives and this helped us greatly.  Through … More Asymmetric Protesting: improving our effectiveness

Last week Deborah Galbraith posed an interesting question after receiving a reply to her concerns about SPENs proposal from one of the area’s politicians. In essence the response from the politician stated that while they have similar concerns to Deborah about the routeing and the apparent lack of consideration of the alternatives they believe the … More D&Gs Future Business Development: does it need this upgrade?

It is frustrating to learn that SPEN are advising our MSPs that their proposed strategic reinforcement project is needed because the existing system is old.  So let’s explore this in some depth. The over-riding driving force is not because the existing system is old.  If it were it could be simply replaced on a like … More SPEN: please don’t mislead us!

I thought you may be interested to know now that our petition has broken the 700 barrier today that the Beauly-Denny 400kV super-grid that no-one wanted achieved over 17,500 objected but was still consented by the Scottish Government. So we need to do better – much better than this and we will only achieve this by everyone getting behind the … More Petitioning: the power of numbers

Dumfries & Galloway is rightly famed for its green and pleasant scenery and that is what draws so many people to visit our region each year either to spend their holidays here or simply for a short visit.  We are, in every sense of the word, a rural region and that is what makes the area … More Impact on Tourism: will it be good or bad?

When you want to make representation to elected Councillors to express your concerns about SPENs proposals for the Strategic Reinforcement Project and particularly how it will blight you, your family and your community it is not an easy task to access the e-mail addresses of all the Councillors so what I have done is to bring … More Getting your voice heard: communicating with Dumfries & Galloway Councillors