Chamber and committees

I can frame my thoughts only in relation to my constituency, in which Edinburgh College is. It is a fantastic institution; I appreciate the concerns that many of your members in Edinburgh College have. I also point out that there is huge potential for net zero-related growth in Edinburgh Northern and Leith and that creative industries are expanding there. The college already has a very strong creative aspect to it and can play a role in fulfilling the demand for skills in the net zero area. To me, there are huge opportunities for my constituents; the college, individuals and the community would all want to be engaged in them. That is why I am interested in the balance, which is relevant not only to my constituency, but more widely.

I am just interested in what the balance would look like, but I am happy to move on.

This is a question that I have also asked the Government. Do we need to think about having more joint courses? One part of the course could be a subject that is demanded by the market and might have more employability application, while the other part could be from the arts, community education or another area that is also really important in order to preserve knowledge and to ensure that there is a wide array of subjects that people can engage with. Do we need to think more about bringing different areas together in joint honours? I know there are lots of joint honours courses already, but do we need to consider that? I am sorry if that question is too broad. You can write to us if it is too much to answer now.

That is not what I was saying. I say this as a philosophy graduate. People ask, “What are you going to do with a philosophy degree?” but it teaches a person to think. That knowledge has been amassed over hundreds of years: we do not want to lose the ability to learn those subjects, but we should do so in a practical and more competitive environment. That is why I am considering whether we need more collaboration between subjects.

Thank you, convener. My question relates to where I finished off in the previous question theme. What growth areas might the Scottish Government and others want to focus on when looking at where colleges can have the biggest economic impact in the period ahead?

Thank you for setting that out.

That is what I meant.

Thank you, colleagues. I am sorry for causing any confusion, but I did not want to come in with this question until colleagues had had the chance to ask about the major roads that have been mentioned so far.

I have a related question, cabinet secretary. Please excuse me if it seems to be too focused on my constituency, but it has relevance elsewhere. You might be familiar with Wardie Bay in my constituency, which sits between Granton and Newhaven, and with Lower Granton Road, which goes between those two areas. I have previously written to the Government about it and recently caught up with campaigners who are involved in the issue there. The residents on that road suffer very high levels of congestion, and there are often accidents because the road is so narrow. Campaigners have relayed to me that the road has twice the daily average number of vehicles travelling along it that the A9 has.

I wanted to raise that issue with you, because every time I have written to the Government the response has been—quite understandably—that it is a matter for the City of Edinburgh Council. However, in cities such as Edinburgh that have significantly growing populations, more might need to be considered in the positive and constructive Verity house agreement between central Government and local government on what investment needs to go into busy key roads in our city centres. Seafield Road, which leads into my constituency, is another one of those roads.

Those roads would require significantly less investment than is needed in the major roads in our country. They are very heavily used transport routes and the pressure on them is only growing. With the housing development that I hope will happen in Granton and the continuing housing development in Leith, Lower Granton Road will only get busier. Can that issue be considered further?

No—my question relates to this point. That is why I said that I would come in after question 16.

I thought that you were going to ask about the A9 as well.