Sandra Osborne

Labour Party | Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock

Window on Westminster : August 2009

The Parliamentary Recess

A new website called 38 Degrees wants MPs to complete a survey of what they will be doing over the summer recess. Will we be spending the 12 weeks sunning ourselves on a foreign beach or earning big bucks from a second job? They have even asked people to snap an MP on holiday! Along with most of my colleagues I don't have any problem with accounting for the 12 week recess. Apart from 2 to 3 weeks holiday break, I will be in the constituency dealing with constituency business and holding my usual long list of summer surgeries throughout the towns and villages. By the way – my Maybole surgeries have moved to the Age Concern premises but are still open to everyone. Posters will be up soon with all the details of my surgeries including dates and venues. What I really find amusing about the interest in where MPs spend the recess is the suggestion that I would want to be anywhere other than in the constituency. I can't get home quickly enough at weekends and look forward to the recesses when I can concentrate on local issues at home. Why would you want to be anywhere else but Ayrshire over the summer, especially if the sun is shining.

George Brown retires from Turnberry

Golf Courses & Estates Manager at Turnberry, George Brown, retired from his role at the close of this year's successful Open Championship after more than 23 years at the top of his profession. I wish him a happy retirement after serving Turnberry so well.

And wasn't it great to see Ayrshire scenery at its best being broadcast all over the world during the Open at Turnberry. In the days following, the Ayrshire golf courses were mobbed with budding champions as golf fever spread like tennis after Wimbledon. What a pity South Ayrshire Council are intent on negating that spirit by closing Dalmilling Golf Course. The other down side, was the traffic problems in Maybole during the Open highlighting again the need for the Maybole Bypass. This must seem like déjà vu to the people of Maybole who I believe were promised a bypass the last time the Open was at Turnberry. We don't seem to be any nearer getting the bypass with the SNP Government's road programme hopelessly behind schedule and resources being diverted to the new Forth Crossing.

Future Jobs Fund

The Future Jobs Fund is a UK Government initiative of around £1 billion to support the creation of jobs for long term unemployed young people and others who face significant disadvantage in the labour market. The first round of successful bids has been announced and I am pleased to see over 300 jobs coming to Ayrshire through bids submitted by North and East Ayrshire Councils. I am disappointed that South Ayrshire has been slow to get its act together having set up a working group which has still to finalise and submit a bid.

The Fund was announced in the Budget 2009 and is to be spent over the next two years. It is a challenge fund which invites organisations to submit bids for funding. The fund is run by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in partnership with the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG).

The Fund aims to create 150,000 jobs. These will be aimed primarily at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for a year. This will support the guarantee that from 2010 everyone in this age group who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job or training lasting at least 6 months. The programme is ongoing and Scotland will be securing more jobs on top of the 3,000 agreed this round. I look forward to the Carrick area benefitting once South Ayrshire finalise and submit their bid.

Town Centre Regeneration Funding

Talking of funding for Carrick, I am very disappointed that the Scottish Government have turned down Girvan for Town Centre Regeneration funding in the first round of awards announced this month. There are 48 Scottish towns due to benefit from a share of £60 million but Girvan isn't one of them. I am of course delighted that Ayr is to get £2.258 million and also that other Ayrshire towns like Cumnock, Galston, Saltcoats, Ardrossan and Millport are also to benefit. However, after all the recent publicity regarding the lack of investment in the Girvan area it is very frustrating to find that Girvan has missed out again. South Ayrshire Labour Group Leader, Cllr John McDowall, has rightly drawn attention to the fact Scottish Government ministers Jim Mather and Adam Ingram were both present at the Strategic Funders meeting in Girvan in March and were made well aware of how local people felt about the need for investment in the Girvan area. This isn't just about town centres – regeneration funding also brings with it local jobs. There is a further £20 million still to be allocated later in the year and both MSP Cathy Jamieson and I will be fully supporting John McDowall in his efforts to get a fair share for Girvan.