It’s hustings season. With less than a month to the National Elections in Holyrood, it’s time to be asking hard questions of the people and parties putting themselves forward. Here are the questions you could be asking candidates, should they come to your door, or you meet them on the street, Jeremy Glass of Sustaining North Berwick writes
The poor quality of the water in our rivers
We know from East Lothian River Connections – a network of local projects and groups working on rivers – that water quality is poor due to factors including agricultural run off and inadequate sewage infrastructure exacerbated by new housing developments. There are concerns that SEPA, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, does not have the resources to monitor and deal with pollution incidents and that Scottish Water lacks the capacity to respond adequately to planning applications.
What steps will your Party take to ensure that:
- SEPA has theresources to monitor water quality effectively and deal with pollution incidents?
- Scottish Water has the capacity to modernise the sewage infrastructure and ensure that new developments do not exacerbate the problem?
Nature Friendly Farming/Regenerative Agriculture
We know from our work with Future Farming East Lothian – a group of farmers that want to farm with nature – that there is a real interest in change.
- How will your policies for Food and Farming incentivise farmers to move away from harmful practices that undermine biodiversity and pollute our rivers in favour of regenerative farming?
Food security
We know from the National Emergency Briefing that food security is a major issue in the face of climate change.
There are multiple demands being made on our agricultural land in East Lothian – new housing developments, industrial developments associated renewable energy and data centres for AI.
- How will your party ensure that agricultural land (and not only ‘prime’ agricultural land) is protected with a view to food security?
- What steps will your party to take to support horticulture including Community Supported Agriculture initiatives such as Tyninghame Community Farm?
