STEVENSON URGES BANFF & BUCHAN BUSINESSES TO TAKE PART IN UNIQUE COLLABORATION

Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson has called upon businesses in Banff & Buchan to join BusinessClub Scotland, a unique collaboration of all Scotland’s major business organisations. With funding from the Scottish Government, BusinessClub Scotland will ensure that firms across Scotland capitalise on the business opportunities from the Year of Homecoming, the 2014 Commonwealth Games and other major events in Scotland. The new initiative will be led by the Scottish Council for Development and Industry but carries the support of all of the major business organisations in Scotland.

The key objectives of BusinessClub Scotland are to:
-Improve business competitiveness
-Build supply chain networks
-Facilitate procurement around events
-Extend the reach of existing networks
-Provide direct business engagement and targeted networking at events to win business
-Develop expertise in event management and delivery

Commenting, Mr Stevenson said:

“BusinessClub Scotland offers businesses in Banff & Buchan a real opportunity to compete for lucrative contracts connected to the major events we see across Scotland every year.

“Glasgow 2014 alone will be spending up to £200m on goods and services in the run up to the Games, and there is no reason why businesses in Banff & Buchan cannot successfully win contracts for some of that money.

“There are great opportunities for businesses to supply services to events, to showcase their products and to make national and international contacts through targeted networking opportunities. That is why I hope businesses in Banff & Buchan will be quick to sign up and see real benefits from membership in this scheme”.

STEVENSON CONDEMNS ANTI-STUDENT LABOUR PARTY AS THEY SCORE A MASSIVE OWN GOAL WITH STUDENT NUMBERS

Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson has slammed the Labour party after their attempt to blame the SNP Government for a fall in student numbers backfired spectacularly. The numbers being quoted in their attacks relate to students who enrolled in 2007, and would have had to meet application deadlines four months before the election.

Far from showing a fall in student numbers under the SNP, the figures reveal that the anti-student policies of the Lib Dems and Labour had successfully driven potential students away from university.

Commenting, Mr Stevenson said:

“This latest attack is an own goal of massive proportions that only serves to highlight how badly the previous administration failed students in Banff & Buchan. The figures reveal the extent to which the Lib Dems and Labour succeeded in scaring potential students away from higher education.

“With policies like the graduate endowment piling up the debts that students had to face, it is hardly surprising that student numbers declined on their watch. That is why students across the country were delighted when the incoming SNP Government abolished the back-door tuition fee as one of our first acts.

“The fact that these figures show that the number of students applying in the final months of the previous administration fell means there can be no doubt that the Lib Dems and Labour are anti-student parties whose policies were hugely damaging to local students.

“Education should be based on the ability to learn, not the ability to pay and the Lib Dems and Labour should be hanging their heads in shame at the results of their total failure to support that principle.”

STEVENSON DELIGHTED AS SNP SECURE FUNDING FOR CONTINUED COUNCIL TAX FREEZE

Banff & Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson has welcomed today’s decision in the Scottish Parliament to pass the Scottish Budget, one week after Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens voted it down endangering £1.8 billion of increased funding and putting thousands of jobs at risk.

The budget contains £70 million to fund a second year’s freeze in council taxes, without which council tax bills in Aberdeenshire would have to rise by around 17%. This represents a saving for band D council tax payers of £189.41 in Aberdeenshire.

Commenting, Mr Stevenson said:

“In the decade before the SNP came to power council tax rose by 93% in Aberdeenshire in year after year of council tax hikes.

“Although the Lib Dems were perfectly content to see this spiral of council tax increases return last week when they voted against the budget, I am glad that they have now seen sense and voted to put the necessary money in place for councils to freeze council tax for a second year.

“In the current economic climate, the last thing that people in Banff & Buchan need is a sharp increase in their council tax bills, and I know they would have been less than impressed at the willingness last week of the Lib Dems to expose them to that risk..

“Thankfully the SNP have now successfully convinced them to back this year’s budget, but residents of Banff & Buchan will not be quick to forget their previous actions”.