Chamber and committees

Thank you—that is helpful. I will bring in David Strain, but first I have a question for Dr Heightman. With referrals in England, do doctors diagnose someone with long Covid and refer them with an official diagnosis on their medical record, or is there self-referral for long Covid as well?

Good morning and welcome to the fifth meeting of the COVID-19 Recovery Committee in 2023. We have apologies from Jim Fairlie, so I welcome Stuart McMillan as a substitute and invite him to declare any relevant interests.

I thank the witnesses for giving us their time. If they would like to raise any further evidence with the committee, they can do so in writing. The clerks would be happy to liaise with them about how to do that.

The committee’s next meeting will be on 9 March, when we will continue our long Covid inquiry by considering study and research.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

Thank you very much. That has been really helpful. Claire, can you tell us about the same issues in Wales?

Thank you. We move to questions from Murdo Fraser.

We know that delivering a robust curriculum is key to providing our young people with opportunities as they move forward in life. With that in mind, how will the Scottish Government continue to deliver on its commitments to raise attainment and substantially eliminate the poverty-related attainment gap?

Ayr town centre is unique. Some 30 to 40 years ago, people resided in flats above the shops, but it moved away from that set-up in time. Prestwick is different—the same is true of Troon—in that there are a lot of residential and non-residential dwellings in the town centre. That makes it busier, which is the difference between Ayr as the county town and Prestwick and Troon.

It is important to look to the past, as it allows us to learn lessons from mistakes made and, of course, indulge in nostalgia. However, if we are to succeed, we must look ahead with a fresh perspective, new ideas and endless ambition. That is how our town centres will thrive once again.

Okay.

I am sorry, but I have only 15 seconds left.

I thank the Economy and Fair Work Committee for its work in its inquiry into retail and town centres in Scotland and the subsequent published report, and I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate.

I declare an interest as convener of the cross-party group on towns and town centres. This evening, I will host a reception to celebrate improvement districts in Scotland. If any of my colleagues would like to attend that reception, they will be more than welcome.

Let us rewind back to 25 years ago. When I first moved back to Scotland, I initially stayed with my grandparents, who lived in an ex-mining village three miles outside Ayr. Every couple of days, my gran would get on the bus to go into Ayr to get her messages. In those days, Ayr was absolutely buzzing. The length and breadth of the high street was jam packed with retail choice. Blockbuster, John Menzies and C&A were there. Remember all of them? Everybody looks back on those days with treasured memories and nostalgia, and there is a demand to get the towns back to the way they were. However, the cold hard truth is that our towns will never be the same as they once were.

Over the past 25 years, we have seen a steady decline in our town centres—not only in Ayr but throughout Scotland—as they have faced the challenges of changing and evolving retail patterns.

We have seen retail industrial estates open up outwith town centres, the main supermarkets have based themselves on the outskirts of towns, and of course, online shopping has increased. All that has accelerated further and been exacerbated in the past few years by Covid-19, Brexit and the current cost crisis.

For many, it is still hard to accept that our town centres will never be the way they were many years ago, but there is a common understanding that they are vital to the collective wellbeing of our communities, economy and environment. We now have the opportunity to completely rethink how we do things and move forward with ambition and optimism to rebuild our town centres to be vibrant, creative, enterprising and accessible. I welcome the Scottish Government’s approach to delivering a town centre vision that is centred on collaboration and partnership working to build on local assets.

As we know, local authorities have the responsibility for delivering local economic development and local regeneration. The Scottish Government’s town centre action plan can succeed only if it is supported by effective partnership working. I will focus on that point initially as I think it is extremely important.

Town centres will not be transformed overnight. There needs to be an ambitious vision and long-term plan to drive progress, which all parties must be involved in, regardless of whether they form the administration or are in opposition. I was elected as a councillor in 2017. A lot of energy, time and investment was dedicated to planning to transform Ayr town centre. When the Ayr town centre regeneration group was set up, councillors of all parties were invited to contribute to Ayr’s long-term plan. Sadly, councillors from the opposition parties did not attend any meetings in order to contribute, but they opposed the administration’s plans vocally in the local press.

The council decided to purchase an empty department store to transform it into a much-needed new local leisure centre. Once the council committed to that investment, we saw the private sector gain the confidence to invest in Ayr and a private company bought a neighbouring empty shopping centre to turn it into a new cinema complex to coincide with the opening of the leisure centre. That conversion of a huge chunk of empty retail space into leisure space would have been transformational for Ayr town centre. Unfortunately, as is too often the case, the parties that were in opposition opposed any plans for that development, and the current administration of South Ayrshire Council has cancelled the leisure centre project, so private investment has pulled out. At present, there is no long-term plan to transform Ayr town centre and another consultation has been launched, although the work was already done back in 2018. If we are ever going to see progress in our town centres, we need a cross-party and cross-administration approach. We need to go beyond politics for the sake of politics and put our constituents and support for town centre regeneration at the forefront.

On a more positive note, although some of our towns are struggling, we also have some examples of towns that are flourishing, and what better example to look at than Prestwick, which I am very proud to represent in the Parliament? After extraordinarily hard work and commitment from the community, Prestwick high street was crowned as the best in Scotland for 2019. If someone drives through Prestwick, which I invite all members to do, they will find that there is plenty to keep them occupied. It has more restaurants and cafés than can be counted, it is full of small independent shops, and it has a nightlife that attracts many from afar. Despite the challenges of the past few years, business is still booming in Prestwick and there is stiff competition to take up any vacant retail space that emerges. Prestwick has succeeded where others have failed because it has taken an individualised approach that serves the needs of the community.

I strongly believe that Scotland should be an entrepreneurial superpower where people with bright ideas and ambitions are encouraged to open businesses and contribute to the economy, just like so many in my constituency do. We must support them and push them forward.