Meeting of the Parliament 17 April 2018
I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this debate on air quality as a member of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee. Although I represent a very rural constituency, and Scotland’s most beautiful—Galloway and West Dumfries—I am acutely aware of the challenges that urban communities face daily when many streets still break the EU air quality directives. However, there are serious questions to ask about rural air quality, so I will use my speech today to highlight how the rural region that I represent is facing some challenges from air pollution.
Earlier this year at the Scottish Parliament, I held a positive meeting with those behind the Border and regions airway training hub—BREATH—project, which is a cross-border partnership involving the University of the West of Scotland, Queen’s University Belfast and Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland. The project, which is backed by more than €7 million of funding, is designed to look at lung disease in the west of Scotland and Ireland.
I live in a region that I imagine members will all be shocked to hear has the highest level of COPD not just in Scotland, the UK or Europe: south-west Scotland and Ireland have the highest levels of COPD in the world, with a particular hotspot at Stranraer. I therefore disagree with Mr Stevenson when he says that it is always good to live in the countryside.
Last week, I facilitated a stakeholders’ meeting, and we are committed to progressing this and other projects that will allow world-class researchers who are working directly in Dumfries and Galloway to identify and address the causes, treatment and prevention of COPD. It might not all be down to air quality, but it certainly plays a significant part and we need to identify what that part is. The Government could assist in that process by installing air quality monitors in Cairnryan, which is home to two of our busiest ferry terminals, particularly as shipping is now recognised as a major contributor to air pollution.
We heard from Maureen Watt, the former Minister for Public Health, that there is a possible link between air pollution and Alzheimer’s. As deputy convener of the cross-party group on dementia, I am keen to highlight the fact that there is a higher rate of people living with dementia in Dumfries and Galloway than the Scottish average. Resources are already stretched across rural communities but, as well as supporting our local health services, we must ensure that urgent action is taken to implement a fit-for-purpose air policy that covers rural areas.
We are all keen to promote active lifestyles, and that can be delivered hand-in-hand with reducing air pollution. The benefits of walking and cycling can be realised only if we have the resources to deliver modal shift by making active travel the easy option every day. Dumfries and Galloway Council’s ambitious active travel plans are already delivering results. More than a quarter of journeys in Dumfries and Galloway are made on foot, which is higher than the 23 per cent figure across the country. Furthermore, 38.9 per cent of residents in Dumfries and Galloway have access to bicycles compared with the national average of 34.9 per cent.
Of course, we need to look at ways of reducing emissions while still travelling by car, which is all but essential in rural constituencies such as mine. We need to accelerate the installation of electric charging points for vehicles in rural areas with an ambition to phase out petrol and diesel cars, but we really should consider giving rural communities incentives to own electric cars. I recognise the major challenge that faces our cities when it comes to emissions, but our rural communities cannot be left at a disadvantage.
I hope that the committee’s inquiry has highlighted to the Scottish Government that there is still a lot of work to be done in a number of areas of Scotland if it is to get serious about air quality. There are serious doubts about who will deliver the policies, when they will be implemented and whether the resources are there to do it. It is a serious concern for our urban and rural communities.
The Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee’s report is an important step forward in challenging what has been done to tackle air quality, and I am pleased to have been part of the inquiry. We will continue to monitor the steps that the Government is taking to meet the European directives that it has missed for far too long. I hope that our next inquiry will be able to report significant improvements.
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