 Garryllian Naen. Can I invite, Members, who are leaving the chamber, to do so as quickly and as quietly as possible as we move on to the final item of business this afternoon, which is a Members' business debate on motion 12617, in the name of Oliver Mundell on putting Langeham on the map. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I invite those wishing to participate to press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I call on Oliver Mundell to open the debate around seven minutes, Mr Mundell. Thank you, Presiding Officer. While a day out of Langham is a day wasted, I am delighted to have secured this debate today and have support from across the chamber to do so. It is an opportunity to put Langham on the map in the Scottish Parliament at least. Langham is a proud community, and rightly so, with a rich past and equally vibrant present. The muckled tune, as it is known locally, is said to have taken its name from the many large textile mills once based there, and the booming population and bustle that accompanied. Sadly, the subsequent years have seen many changes, as this and other traditional industries have declined, with only a handful of connected businesses remaining. But one thing is for certain, the sense of community, heritage and spirit fostered over the years has not left, and, if anything, has been reignited in recent years. Community efforts are now firmly focused not on halting decline but on reversing it. Rare credit from me where it is due, but a visit from John Swinney pre-Covid, while not delivering the funding many including myself had hoped for, did focus minds and has eventually led to the formation of the Langham Alliance and Community Forum, which have brought the whole community together. That is very much a community-driven effort, much like the Langham Moor Bay out and many other success stories, but again, there can be no downplaying the importance of support on an on-going basis from the South of Scotland Enterprise Agency, which has been invaluable in funding and roles to coordinate this activity. Following a meeting on Thursday with a community-hosted South of Scotland Enterprise chair, Russell Griggs, it was helpful to be able to ask for the minister's support in addressing the very real concerns of Langham that, because of the success of the Langham Alliance, its associate might now be looking to pull the plug. That would be entirely the wrong decision and present poor value for money for taxpayers when just another 12 months of support at around £50,000 would give a number of key projects such as the old primary school hub, a real prospect of being delivered. I would be grateful for confirmation this evening that the Scottish Government will take an interest in securing the support that the community deserves. It would be easy to fill the remainder of this contribution many times over, talking about Langham and the many projects that individuals and community groups make at Langham. Some of those are touched on in my motion, but it barely scratches the surface. The town has, among other things, been called Scotland's chilly capital due to the number of members of its chilly growing club, and that is before we even get on to well-advanced plans to move into a new brand of horticulture with a large medicinal cannabis factory, a facility for growing cannabis situated nearby entirely legal for sniggering colleagues behind. Langham has many things, but it is always full of surprises and new ideas and new thinking, which sit alongside its many proud traditions and customs. I wonder whether Mr Mundell would like to declare whether there is any personal interest in the cannabis factory in Langham. Mr Mundell makes an interesting point, and shares were available to the community, but I declined to take them up primarily because I felt that it would limit me in my ability to lobby the Home Office for a licence and the Scottish Government for the financial support needed to build what is an incredible facility that will bring jobs and opportunities to the community. Looking to the past and to some of the historic customs and traditions that make Langham special, the most notable of those is undoubtedly its historic Borders common riding, which is truly Langham's greatest day and a spectacle to behold. It is best experienced on horseback, and it remains one of my own personal achievements to successfully ridden the common riding, including the gallop up the Kirkwind as a member of the Scottish Parliament. I have committed to doing so again, but only on the condition that Emma Harper takes part two, and this seems an appropriate time to thank her for supporting my motion, and I know that she had wanted to speak tonight, but is away on British Irish parliamentary assembly business. I am sure that if Emma had been here, she would have been willing to confirm her willingness to take part, and I am sure to catch her later in the week. Langham also has another major claim to fame, as the ancestral home of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. It is something that the town remains very proud of, and they were honoured to make Armstrong a free man of Langham during a very special visit to the town in 1972. This relationship has continued through Neil's sons and their families, who were back in Langham recently. A new proclamation of kinship from Whoppa Mwla, I thought I was going to be able to say it, from Whoppa Caneta, Ohio, Armstrong's birthplace, followed and was unveiled a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps ironically, in the context of this debate, the famous 1972 visit even resulted in the Chicago Tribune publishing a front page news story featuring a map of the United Kingdom, showing only London and Langham. That fact takes me neatly on to the key ask following this debate. For all its many attractions and accolades, Langham appears to have been forgotten when it comes to road signage. On the near-hour drive between Longtown and Hoyke, or equally on the whole M74 motorway, you would be forgiven for thinking that Langham does not exist. It is absent from major directional signage, and there is very little to tell you about its visitor attractions and facilities that are clustered around what is a major population centre for those who live in the work in the Estill Valleys and in Langham itself. It might be small in terms of population numbers to someone sitting behind a desk in Scotland's urban central belt, but Langham matters to the people that live there and has so much to offer. The Langham Alliance that I mentioned earlier and many individuals and other organisations have been working tirelessly to promote the town, and it is represented in the gallery this evening by Anthony Lane, who has been working hard alongside Sharon Toulson to drive forward the road signage project. While there has been some progress south of the border delivering some new signs between the M6 and Langham and a solitary new sign near Annan, efforts on the A7 in Scotland and on the M74 at junction 21 have hit a road block. We have been told that Langham is not a primary destination, therefore it does not get to go on the signs. This characterisation is insulting, and even if it conforms to technical guidance, it seems overly officious when there is plenty of room on the signs in question. It is not as if we are awash with other primary destinations between Longtown and Hoyke, nor are there other communities between Kirkpatrick, Fleming and Langham championing the case to be put on motorway road signs. When you consider the disruption associated with having a trunk road roar through the high street of your small town, it does not seem that big and ask to me that the responsible authorities would be willing to acknowledge that the route actually goes through your community. What is more, I believe that there is an obligation on Transport Scotland and operators to get more involved in helping to promote those communities as somewhere to stop, visit and return to. It is not good enough just to punt this on to communities themselves and expect them to navigate the bureaucracy that Visit Scotland has created around brown signage on the trunk road network. As I close today, I would ask the minister to reflect on what more can be done to get behind Langham to remove those roadblocks. Are smaller, more rural and remote communities have every bit as much to offer and are primary destinations for those who live there and the many visitors they attract? I move to the open debate. I call Fulton MacGregor to be followed by Brian Whittle around four minutes, Mr MacGregor. I am a surprise contributor to this debate, but I am absolutely delighted and I want to thank him for bringing forward the motion to the Parliament. I think that he is achieving his aims of the motion even by bringing this to the Parliament because I have had to learn a bit about Langham today and I am sure that others are so well done to for that. I am mainly actually speaking on behalf of my colleague Emma Harper who, as Oliver Mundell has said, would have spoken to David Shee about the Parliament and other business if she is absolutely gutted to have missed it. She has asked me to relay some points, some of which Oliver Mundell has already done, but she probably agrees with everything that Oliver Mundell has in his motion. She talks about Langham as a community, a very close-knit community that supports each other and this desire for better signage. She also stresses in her view that she feels that Transport Scotland needs to review their policy on directing people to destinations and that Langham should be a place that people are appointed to go to rather than a village that is just driven through. She also told me the story about Neil Armstrong, which I think is absolutely a fascinating bit of history there, so that has been great to learn about that. Langham does sound a great place and I will be making efforts to visit it myself. If somebody travels across Scotland with my kids, they will definitely like some of the history there, particularly if one of my children is very into space stuff just now, they will really like that. On the broader issue of signage, I think that we can all agree in our constituencies that it is very important, because unless you are in Glasgow or Edinburgh or perhaps some of the other cities north of the central belt, you sometimes feel like your tourist attractions and such like can be missed out. There is plenty within the Coatbridge and Crescent area. I have to say that the signage on the two major motorways surrounding my constituency are okay. On the M80, there is plenty of signage for things within Coatbridge and the Northern Corridor area, but it did take the upgrading of the M80 just a few years ago to have improved signage there, which has been really important to highlight in places like the Time Capsule, some of the museum in Coatbridge, and also the Auckland Geek memorial on the other side, as I said, the other motorway in the Northern Corridor. Signage is very important, because it is important that all Scotland benefits from tourism, whether it is a small town like Langham or a medium-sized town and constituency like Coatbridge and Crescent, and that it is not just focused on Glasgow and Edinburgh as important as those cities are to us. I use both regularly myself, but I think that the ethos of today's debate on signage is very important. I thank Transport Scotland for signage for my constituency for being in pretty good shape just now. As a brief contribution by going back to the work of Emma Harper and Oliver Mdalewish and the best of luck in their continuing efforts for Langham, I look forward to visiting Langham myself and seeing and hearing more about it. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Mr McGregor. I now call Brian Whittle to be followed by Colin Smith around four minutes. Mr Whittle. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I start by congratulating my friend and colleague Oliver Mdalew for securing time in this chamber to promote the muckl tune that is Langham. Oliver Mdalew highlighted many of the great characteristics of Langham in his opening address, with many reasons that we should be visiting this town. Unsurprisingly, Deputy Presiding Officer, I would also like to mention the town's great sporting heritage, especially as it is steeped in Borders Rugby Fortlaw. Yes, I have travelled down to play rugby in the cauldron that is Langham Rugby Club. The word passionate does not seem to cover the town's support, and yes, most of us got out alive. Oliver Mdalew also highlighted that the town, like many communities in the south of Scotland and rural Scotland as a whole, especially in the south west, is poorly serviced by transport links. That is not a new topic in this place as we in this party, and indeed members from across the chamber have continually brought it to the attention of the Scottish Government. It makes it difficult to attract businesses as well as visitors to those areas. If it is difficult to get goods in and out of rural Scotland, if it is difficult to get workers in and out of rural Scotland, if it is difficult to access services, then the attraction that rural Scotland undoubtedly offers in communities like Langham becomes difficult to justify for businesses and families. Migration is such a hot topic at the moment. However, the Scottish Government has conveniently forgotten about the huge migratory issues that Scotland has in terms of migration from rural to urban, or even west to east. In the last 10 years, migration numbers from west of Scotland to east of Scotland are the equivalent of the population of the area of Inverclyde. Moreover, much of that migration is from rural areas to urban areas. Migration rural to urban is reducing the need for services, leading to more expensive services to deliver, which in turn leads to the reduction in provision of those services. Schools, healthcare, community sport and leisure are all services that local councils are increasingly struggling to maintain. Class sizes are reduced to a point where there are fewer and fewer teachers, leading to more composite classes, or even the closure of some schools. Rural schools and GP practices are struggling to recruit enough teachers, and GP practices are struggling to recruit enough teachers and GPs to service these communities. Accessing hospital care, especially emergency care, is precarious at best with accidents and trunk loads often necessitating huge diversions on to B roads and B-class roads. Laying on top of that, the rural housing policy does nothing to deliver rural housing, and the Scottish Government is presiding over a perfect storm. It is no wonder that rural Scotland is struggling to maintain its rural communities. Scottish Government policy has for many years been biased towards urban communities and their needs to the detriment of communities like Langham. The lack of investment in rural communities detailed by Oliver Mundell has continued to cause a population drain, as it becomes increasingly difficult to deliver the connectivity and the services that will reverse that trend. The Scottish Government continues to starve rural communities of investment into the transport infrastructure. Let's face it less than 0.05 of the Scottish transport budget in the last decade has been invested in the south of Scotland. The inevitable conclusion will be of Scotland that it is increasingly urban-based and fantastic communities like Langham, Steepin and such rich Scottish history will fade away and wouldn't that be a travesty? So I would once again like to thank Oliver Mundell for giving us the opportunity to speak on this topic in the chamber. Colin Smyth, to be followed by Rachel Hamilton, around four minutes. Thank you to Oliver Mundell for tabling his motion. It is a welcome opportunity to shine a light on a town that is often forgotten but one whose community drive, passion and achievements are an example to others. Langham was the birthplace of engineer Thomas Telford, the poet Hugh McDermid. As home of Clann Armstrong, as we have heard, it proudly made Neil Armstrong the first and indeed only freeman of Langham when his visit in 1972, when he warmly told the crowds, I consider this now my home town. The muckl tune is a proud, rich history. It was once a thriving economy with a population of over 4,000 and bustling textile mills, but the economic decline of the 80s halfed the population. The big employers closed or left town. The last Edinburgh wooly mill, founded in Langham in 1946, moved its head office to Calaleo five years ago. Despite the decline, despite the challenges, however, the community is fighting back. They recognise the opportunities that exist in Langham from a focus on ecotourism to making the town a hub for small growing businesses. I spoke recently in Parliament about the quiet land reform revolution that is taking place on Langham Mwyr. The Mwyr's dramatic hills, native woodland habitat and stunning river valley are home to some of the best sites to see Henharriars and Curlew and the right on the doorstep of the town of Langham. When the Duke of Beclu declared the Mwyr surplus to his vast land portfolio in 2019, the community, through the Langham initiative, undertook a bold fundraising effort that put the town on the map, captured hearts around the world and raised a remarkable £6 million to undertake South Scotland's biggest community buyout, taking 10,000 hectares of the Duke's land under the protection and ownership of the people. Now known as the Tarras Valley Nature Reserve, the community owners are improving the environment by pushing the boundaries of ecological and community restoration in partnership with organisations such as the Woodland Trust and John Mwyr Trust and building a far better economic future for Langham by pursuing sustainable and responsible tourism. Their plans for the Mwyr are inspiring and they sum up the community spirit that drives Langham. That optimism has also been captured by the Langham Alliance and their community plan for the town. I am ambitious but I believe entirely achievable long-term plan that aims to give the town a thriving sustainable economy by 2013, including bringing more visitors to the area to enjoy the Mwyr and everything that Langham has to offer. However, the Alliance has rightly, as we have heard, identified that it makes it a bit more difficult to put Langham on the map when Transport Scotland seems to have such difficulty even putting it on the road signs. Thanks to the Alliance's campaign, we have seen some progress south of the border with proposals from the UK Government for new signage to Langham on the Roundabout at Junction 44, on the M6 and from Cumberland Council for signage on the A7. However, the Scottish Government needs to show more flexibility and a bit more common sense in playing its part with far better signage to Langham on the A7 and the M74 north of the border. The Alliance has settled exactly where that could be achieved. I hope that the minister will respond to those calls positively in your closing comments and review the current outdated policy that holds communities such as Langham back. The Alliance's plan also rightly backs calls by the Langham and District Rail group that any feasibility study on extending the border's railway should include consideration of the route passing through Langham. The case to extend the line to Langham to Huyck is powerful. Further south is more challenging because there are fewer major population centres. Although there is a strong argument for extending the line to Calel to link with the west coast mainline and provide that alternative to the east coast mainline, I think that the case for that extension would be even stronger if Langham was included on the route given that it is the largest town between Huyck and Calel. That, Presiding Officer, along with proper signage on the A7 and A74, is something that really would put Langham on the map. Thank you, Mr Smith. I now call Rachel Hamilton, final speaker in the open debate, up to four minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I firstly thank Oliver Mundell for bringing forward this really great debate and for his fantastic speech, but not to be outdone by him. I too completed the Selkirk common riding on horseback and my horse was going so fast that I had to get right, tuck myself right behind Stuart Coulthard, who at the time was a previous standard bearer for Selkirk. It was the most frightening experience of my life, and thank goodness we were going up the Three Brethren and it was just worse coming down. I would like to, like Oliver, challenge my colleague Brian Whittle to join me. Whilst Langham is not in my constituency, of course I represent the neighbouring communities across the borders, for example Newcastleton, and Newcastleton is closer to Langham than it is to Huyck, and the children of Newcastleton go to the Langham school and some go to the Huyck school. Langham, as Oliver Mundell has said, has much in common with its neighbouring town Huyck because it has a common riding. I support the common ridings, and Tommy Morrison from Langham was in the car with me as we drove round Huyck, waving to everyone as all the townsfolk came out. I thought that they were waving at me and saying hello, but no, it was Tommy Morrison from Langham, so I've just given him a shout out because he was far more popular than I was. The core of this debate is about ensuring that we give communities the right tools and support to allow them to thrive. As many speakers have said this evening, we absolutely need to ensure that we don't just get people to drive through areas on to other places, that we ensure that they come and enjoy the fantastic towns and attractions that we have on our doorstep. For Langham and across the south of Scotland, tourism is a key part of the local economy. As of March this year, there were just over 890 businesses directly involved in the visitor economy, employing thousands of people across the borders. I draw members to the register of my interests as a director of a local hospitality business in the borders. There's two million day trips to the borders, that was in 2022, and our towns and the villages are the first to offer the best experience for tourists across that area. Millions visit the region every year to see such attractions such as Sir Walter Scott's, Abbotsford and our historic Borders Abbey. Sadly, however, it's easy for travellers, as others have said, to miss those key attractions whilst driving through the region and not enjoying what they have in the region because of the lack of effective signposting on roads such as the A7 action—sorry, the A7—and at this point I would like to mention the A7 action group because there are a group of people who have consistently, over the years, campaigned to ensure that signage is improved on that A7 corridor. I also met with famously Hoik. It's a group of five retailers, they're premium luxury retailers who promote their local attractions and improve the visitor experience of the town. So producers such as Johnson's of Elgin, the Borders Distillery, Hoikico, William Lockie and Lovett Mill. Their concern was that there was a lack of strategic approach to welcoming signage in the town and along the A7, which was resulting in missed opportunities for visitors. I agree with other speakers that improved signage along the A7 would undoubtedly provide a valuable boost to them and others in places such as Hoik and Langeham. Finally, I want to make the point that I was really disappointed by Visit Scotland's decision to shut down the ice centre in Jebraw. I don't think that the Scottish Government at this stage and this juncture after Covid can afford to take the visitor economy for granted. Our communities are proud of their heritage and culture and it is only right that the Scottish Government do more to boost these communities and to save those really iconic and special visitor centres. Thank you to Oliver. Let's just try to do more and get the Government to engage with communities by implementing effective signposting to local attractions and businesses. Thank you, Ms Hamilton. I am fairly in response to the debate, Minister, around seven minutes. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First of all, I congratulate Oliver Mundell on bringing forward this motion today and just to recognise the efforts of many, including my colleague Emma Harper, and making sure that Langeham, as a community, is heard and creating opportunities for its town as a destination in the borders and to emphasise that when the Government recognises the strategic importance that our towns and villages make in ensuring that Scotland is a destination in itself with a huge diversity, be it cityscapes, landscapes or cultural heritage, Scotland really does offer it all. For Langeham itself, I would add to the recognitions of the various members about the attractions to Langeham and highlight again things like being called the muckledoon and growing cannabis. That, to me, is a reason to get a brown board sign up in the roads anyway, the fact that you are going to grow on cannabis and called the muckledoon. It is the birthplace of Hugh McDermott who sits on the river Eskin, another beautiful Scottish attraction. It is a connection to the rivers, and I romantically like to think of the rivers as being of independent mind and spirit. As they were talking about the common ridings, just seeing Emma Harper on a horse going through Langeham itself, that in itself would be worth a visit to Langeham. It is an doubted fame and association of the Gilnocki tower to Clann Armstrong and to the maker of Neil Armstrong, a freeman of the town in 1973. Add to that with the Becluse centre and, of course, the Langeham Moor Raptor study. There are endless reasons for folk wanting to visit the town, which I am sure is very welcome by the residents and tourist businesses alike. It is for all those reasons that it is clearly worth having this debate for the members and the people of Langeham. However, as far as the road sign is concerned, which is the foundation of Mr Mundell's motion, there are many things to consider that in lots of years of work and consultation have been devoted to Langeham. I would like to revise some of those points in my closing remarks to the debate. This is what Transport Scotland's approach has been and its current position with the road signage policy. For Langeham on the A7 trunk road, Transport Scotland has held various discussions over the years with local representatives, including MSPs and MPs, the members of the Langeham Alliance, Dumfries and Galloway Council, a number of the road authorities from the north-west England and the UK's Department of Transport. They have confirmed that they believe that the current strategic sign arrangements for Langeham are consistent with the national applied strategy. The trunk road signing policy governs the directional signage on trunk roads in Scotland and throughout the strategic road network of the UK. Yes, I will. Oliver Mundell, I thank the minister for taking the intervention and for the start to his speech, but this is more of the same of what we have had. It seems very hard to believe that Cumbria, County Council and national highways are able to get Langeham on the road signs just south of the border, but when it comes to Scotland, those technical requirements are stopping it. As I said during my own remarks, it seems odd because there are no other primary destinations. Those signs can have up to six destinations on them, but there are not six destinations, so there is space. It seems a shame to hide behind technical requirements. Minister, I can give you the time back. I am going to complete the point that I was making. A detailed review of the existing signage on strategic roads has been conducted, resulting in Langeham's inclusion on northland signs on the A7 within England and additional signs on the A75 to the east of Dumfries. Signage on the A74 motorway was also examined last year to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating Langeham on to the existing signs, but it was determined that the existing signage on the motorway complies with current design requirements. It is important to acknowledge that the motorway signs in question are relatively new, large and expensive to replace. Consequently, it has been deemed prudent to refer consideration of this opportunity until the signs require replacement at the end of their serviceable life. There are currently no immediate plans to modify the A74 signs, and this has been advised to Mr Mundell in previous responses to parliamentary questions. It should be noted that other policies exist for the consideration of new brown tourist destinations signage—I want to talk about cannabis, there you go. This seems to promote businesses and attractions who are accredited throughout Visit Scotland's quality assurance scheme. With the wealth of attractions, as I mentioned, perhaps that is something that the member can explore with his constituents. Transport Scotland's approach to the Langeham signage issue has been thorough and thoughtful, and I advise that it should follow engagement with the local community and stakeholders over the preceding year that the Langeham sign rationalisation initiative has been effectively executed along the A7 trunk road. That initiative seeks to enhance the pedestrian experience and to reduce visual clutter by minimising the number of signs and has resulted in the optimisation of available foot space throughout Langeham. Looking ahead to this year, the focus will be addressed on the community's request for new signage. Those requests include signage for community facilities, catering for both motorists and pedestrians, as well as provisions for parking, including electric vehicle charging facilities and gateways signage. Through on-going collaboration, this initiative will optimise the signage within Langeham, whilst ensuring efficient use of space to address the community's needs and their requests. Through Transport Scotland's road maintenance contract, significant investment in the A7 has been made, totaling £64 million since 2007. Those investments include various initiatives such as routine and cyclic maintenance, deeper road reconstruction, general minor improvement measures, active travel works, road safety enhancements and bridge maintenance. In the recent financial year, a total of £6.6 million has been invested in the A7 for road maintenance. That funding has been directed towards projects such as the improvement of road markings and studs between Langeham and Hoik, as part of the on-going efforts to improve the overall infrastructure and safety standards of the A7 corridor. In terms of our continued investment, there are currently two significant resurfacing schemes scheduled for this year, along the A7. The first is situated north of Langeham and is estimated at £130,000 and is programmed for the autumn 2024, with the second one to the south of Langeham estimated to cost £970,000 scheduled for the winter of 2024. The Scottish Government has made a commitment to implement 20-mile-an-hour speed limits on roads that were deemed appropriate by 2025. That was a commitment that was reinforced in the 2022 programme for government, which advocates for the expansion of 20-mile-an-hour zones to create safer streets and promote active travel. As part of this initiative, the A7 at Langeham has been identified as a potential location for reducing the speed limit from 30 to 20 in sections meeting the specific criteria. Transport Scotland has collaborated with Dumfries and Galloway Council and Police Scotland to advance new 20-mile-an-hour speed limits where deemed suitable. In the upcoming year, Transport Scotland has committed to enhancing N10 footway accessibility throughout Langeham town centre with the objective of offering the most optimal walking and wheeling facilities in the area. As well as continued support for discussions around the signage with aforementioned groups such as Langeham Alliance and Tourism, Transport Scotland and its Road Maintenance Operating Company, BEAR, participates in all seven action group meetings to foster close communication and collaboration with the communities, including Langeham. I will push on because I have already over my time. Additionally, as part of their commitment to social value and community benefits, BEAR Scotland has proactively engaged with schools in the area. This outreach has been conducted both in person and online, ensuring a comprehensive coverage and accessibility. Furthermore, the community has been provided with on-going assistance for road network access during special community events such as the Christmas lights display and the Langeham Bonfer and fireworks event. With all that in mind, I would like to conclude by reiterating the Government's unwavering commitment to all aspects raised in the motion, ensuring that the A7 trunk road continues to support economic development in the south-east of Scotland and across Scotland. I suspect that Emma Harper will be watching back tomorrow with no little alarm, but I close this meeting of Parliament.