Freedom of Information shows officials knew web-based SRDP left out thousands
Upwards of 70,800 people live live in 42 broadband balck spot areas in rural Scotland. A Freedom of Information (FoI) response to the Press and Journal shows with 23 pieces of correspondence disclosed in the FoI that the officials behind the programme were told about about the problems of accessing a Rural Development Programme operated in main as a web-based scheme. One key part, is only accessible online. It was dubbed as 'a recognised strategy' to make it difficult for small operators to bid for funding being easier to administer a smaller number of large bids from farming businesses. Ironically of the critical 32 Rural Priorities, Priority 25 is Public Access Priorities and the SDRP is hailed as the first time a rural funding package has sought to deliver a Greener Scotland and to promote a Wealthier and Fairer rural Scotland
Angela Wiseman, of the government’s rural communities division, also warned her colleagues that 21 exchanges in the Western Isles are without broadband.
In the blackspot clusters are Aird at Loch Ness, Ardross at Alness, all the Angus glens, Appin, Aigas at Beauly, Ardargie at Bridge of Earn, Brora, Calvine, Cortachy and Kingoldrum at Kirriemuir, the Carron Valley, several communities around Dingwall, Dundonnell, Glenfarg and Ardeonaig in Perthshire.
Other problems areas include Dalqueich at Kinross, Glen Uig, Drimnin at Morven, Craigo and Northwaterbridge near Montrose, Poolewe, Boyndie at Portsoy, Kylesku in the north-west Highlands, and areas around Spean Bridge, Corgarff in Strathdon and Balquhidder near Callander.
The government has admitted 28 complaints so far about the system, five of which criticise it only being open to online applications. But it has refused to release the legal advice it has received as to whether the system is discriminatory or not and whether it breaches Europe’s human rights act.
Shetland MSP Tavish Scott has been the most vocal critic of the programme so far. He said the responses showed that Rural Affairs Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead was as determined as ever to ignore the fact that people in rural areas do not have internet access nor that many potential applicants have the confidence to use computers. He also found it extraordinary that government’s response suggested it was not in the public interest to release the legal advice it had received.
Source: http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/678526?UserKey=0
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