Overlooked. Ignored. Abandoned. Those are the words that crop up again and again from the people of rural Scotland when journalists ask them how they feel.

This week, their exasperation is over pot holes. Campaigners report that people are leaving the Thurso and Wick area because they can’t afford the frequency of repairs to their cars. “It’s not the weather we speak about, it’s the pot holes,” one Caithness resident told BBC Scotland. “We feel like we’re abandoned.”

Last week, it was the ongoing failure by the Scottish Government to dual the A9 in a timely manner, with Nicola Sturgeon apologising in parliament for it.

A couple of weeks before that it was the state of rural health services, after a woman having an allergic reaction almost died because she struggled to access the emergency care she needed on Skye.

And barely a week goes by without a ferry breaking down or some revelation coming to light in the fiasco of the overbudget, overdue ferries MV Sannox and MV Glen Rosa.

Rural communities are becoming a major focus of all the parties’ efforts (Image: free)

The Scottish Government’s openness to scrapping the bodies that own and operate Scotland’s ferries, and creating a new organisation – reported yesterday in The Herald – is an indication of how deep these problems run. It shows, perhaps, that ministers understand a big gesture is required after years of intractable problems.

All in all, rural communities have had enough and politicians have noticed. With many hotly contested seats in countryside areas, rural communities – for once – are becoming a major........

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