1. "It's the Economy, Stupid" (James Carville 1992)

The British economy will have a major impact on the amount of money available in Argyll and Bute.

The first priority must be to address past mistakes and force the banks to lend to British business and industry. With Britain back at work, the economic recovery will reduce the impact of budget cuts on Argyll and Bute.

2. Argyll and Bute Council should make more, spend less.

While the national economy will dominate the amount of money available to Argyll and Bute Council there are things the Council can do to mitigate the effect on front line services in Argyll and Bute.

2a. Make better use of the resources in Argyll and Bute.

Do you know that there is a beehive house in Argyll and Bute?

Do you know that there is an archaelogical treasure in Argyll and Bute that few people know about or visit? An idyllic island where St Columba went on retreat when things got too busy on Iona.

This island should be a significant Scottish attraction worth money to the economy of Oban.

There is an amazing raised beach on the north shore of Loch Tarbert on the west side of Jura. This is just to the East of The Cave of the Dead, where the bodies of Scottish King's were rested on their journey to Iona for burial.

Raised beaches occured when the ice melted after the last ice age about 10,000 years ago. With the loss of the weight of the ice, the land rose leaving beaches up to 30 or 40 meters above sea level.

This raised beach is made up of sizeable stones of sufficient depth that there has been no infill of soil and no growth of grass or other vegetation to obscure the features of the beach which has smooth hollows and features that you might see in a present day beach. It is a piece of stone sculpture preserved through the ages.

There are numerous raised beaches on the West Coast of Scotland. As far as I am aware, none of them have the timeless features of this beach.

There are cruise ships travelling up the west coast from Liverpool. These ships travel up the Firth of Lorn and anchor off Oban. Some of the passengers do go ashore and are taken by bus to Inveraray. There is no effort to get them to Oban where they would spend their tourist money.

2b. The Argyll and Bute Council needs to stop wasting taxpayers' money.

£400,000 was spent relaying the all weather sports pitch at Hermitage School, Helensburgh a year before the move to the new school.

The pitch will be torn up and discarded. A waste of public money.

£600,000 of public money was wasted on The Helensburgh Partnership. The Partnership was set up to develop the Pier Site. However ownership of the Pier Site was under legal dispute. The money was wasted.

The Council is running Oban Airport at a loss. It had been operated at a profit before the Council took over.

£6 million of public money was spent extending the runway at Oban Airport and at runways on Coll, Tiree and Colonsay.

These islands are serviced by ferries from Oban. There are better ways to spend public money than providing air service to islands where isolation is one of the key attractions.

The Council should not be in the airport business wasting taxpayers' money.

3. The roads of Argyll and Bute need to be better managed.

The A82 from Balloch to Bowling is a significant bottleneck.

In particular any accident between Dumbuck and Bowling cuts Argyll and Bute off from Glasgow and the hospitals in Paisley and Glasgow

If you travel frequently on the A82, you will have been caught in traffic on that stretch of road.

We need an emergency relief road between Dumbuck and Bowling.

The cheapest solution would be to place lane dividers on both directions of travel between Dumbuck and Bowling. The road would then be set up for contraflow operation which would allow diversion of traffic around an accident.

A more expensive option would be a one lane roadway used in either direction depending on whether the accident is affecting eastbound or westbound traffic.

There is a disused railway right of way which forms part of the cycle network that could be the emergency relief road with minimum expense.

There is also waste ground between Dumbuck and Bowling that could be used.

In either case, Argyll and Bute would not be brought to a standstill by an accident in the bottleneck area.

We need a flyover on the A82 at Balloch. When there is heavy traffic southbound on the A82, the Stoneymollan Roundabout can't cope and traffic backs up sometimes as far at Tarbet.

The problem is due to traffic northbound turning right for Balloch. A flyover in the northbound direction would allow traffic to turn right without interfering with traffic southbound.

If there is an accident, control is handed to a police forensic team who have to take photographs and make measurements to determine the cause of the accident. This proceedure is laid down in official guidelines.

These guidelines should be changed to make this a shorter process. Any additional information gathered can't be justified by the delays that result.

3. We need to get rid of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority.

This has been an enormous drain on public resources without any significant public benefit.

The headquarters building cost £9 million. The sculpture at Stoneymollan Roundabout cost £1 million plus traffic delays of around £2 million and three lives.

The annual budget for the Park Authority is around £8 million.

Essential local workers are leaving Scotland due to frustration and anger over restrictive planning decisions. The Park Authority has decided to charge for car parking in the Park. Camping restrictions are being imposed.

The Park Authority is making a visit to Loch Lomond and The Trossachs a less welcoming and enjoyable experience.

The public toilet at The Duck Bay, a popular rest area for visitors, has been closed and will remain closed. Nearest facilities are in Luss or Balloch.

We don't need an extra layer of bureaucracy with highly paid bureaucrats.

The Park Authority building would make an ideal Family History Center and contribute to the local economy.

Let's get rid of the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park authority and put the money to use serving the residents of Argyll and Bute.

4. We need Post Offices in Argyll and Bute

Argyll and Bute is a widespread area with few large centres of population. The small villages need Post Offices.

The Labour Government have done their best to destroy the British Post Office which is one of the great British Institutions created by our Victorian ancestors. Services have been withdrawn and a Post Office that is coping with the shift to e-mail has been left vulnerable. Post Offices have been closed across Britain. This cannot be allowed to continue. We need to support local Post Offices. They provide vital services to the local community and are often the only public face of government in the area.

5. Each community should have a Community Centre.

There are outstanding examples of a large Community Centre in Stornaway and of a small Community Centre in Lochmaddy on North Uist.

These should be extensions of The Village Hall where the community gathers for public meetings, bingo, whist drives, sales of work etc.

The extension allows for art work in the community and has a museum component that allows visitors to find out about the past and present of the local area.

Most of Scotland's treasures are on display in The National Museum in Edinburgh. Scotland has so many treasures that they can't all be displayed and the surplus is stored in warehouses in Leith.

This important resource should be on display around Argyll and Bute. Edinburgh has enough to attract visitors.

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery is attracting record numbers of visitors after the recent remodelling. Glasgow City Council have the same problem as The National Museum. There is a warehouse on the south side of Glasgow, purpose built to house the art that can't be displayed in Kelvingrove.

Let's use our resources, get the work on display and attracting and entertaining visitors!

6. A Community Centre for Helensburgh

Helensburgh needs a Community Centre in the town centre. While the Victoria Hall works for large scale events it is far enough from the town centre that casual passersby won't walk that far. The former Quorum Carpet shop is sitting vacant and is big enough to provide the facilities a Community Centre should have.

7. Helensburgh needs to welcome Coach Drivers instead of charging them to park.

It might seem like a trivial thing, but flourishing Helensburgh businesses, depend on visitors to the town. The Council is charging bus drivers to park in the Pierhead parking site. Loch Lomond Shores offers the bus drivers incentives to visit.

There are a lot of bus tours travelling around Argyll and Bute. The bus drivers have discretion on where they take their passengers. While it might seem to be a murky area, it is the real world. Helensburgh must compete for visitors. The small amount of money lost in parking revenue would be made up in taxes from the Helensburgh businesses that would benefit.