With Christmas now just a month away everyone is naturally anxious to know if it will be possible to relax some Covid restrictions to let people spend some time with their families. The stricter rules covering many parts of Scotland are designed to try and get the pandemic sufficiently under control so that it’s safe to allow even limited indoor meeting with other households. Sadly, it looks very unlikely that we’ll be able to have the kinds of big family gatherings so many of us look forward to. The advice from both the Scottish and UK Governments is that sticking firmly by the rules just now makes it more likely that it will be safe to relax some of the rules for a short time over Christmas.
I had a very helpful virtual meeting last week with Network Rail to get the latest update on the Levenmouth Rail Link. As with any project of this size the planning and preparation can feel as if they’re taking longer than the actual construction. A huge amount of work is going on behind the scenes to make sure this very welcome project is delivered to the ambitious time scale set by the Scottish Government.
MPs and MSP from across Fife met local representatives of the National Farmers Union of Scotland last week to get an update on how Covid and Brexit are affecting their vital work of keeping us all fed. It was disappointing to hear that many local farmers are still having to spend a lot of time and money dealing with illegal dumping of rubbish. There’s no excuse for this. Although Fife Council’s recycling centres have had to change their way of working during the pandemic, they are still very much open and kerbside collection of rubbish is still being done. In fact, it’s much easier to dispose of domestic rubbish properly than it is to drive into the countryside and dump it on someone else’s property.
My constituency team are continuing to do sterling work responding to requests for help and advice. We’re currently receiving nearly four times as many new cases as we were this time last year. This year alone the team have secured well over £100,000 in financial gains for constituents as well as helping hundreds of others with non-financial queries. Although the office is closed (this also means we can’t take hand delivered mail) the phones and Royal Mail deliveries have been redirected so you can still contact us my phone or in writing as well as by email.