SCOTTISH Tory Oliver Mundell’s Dumfriesshire is ripe for the picking by the SNP as young people look set to back independence and regeneration of the neglected market town at the constituency’s heart.

The area has historically been a safe Labour seat but was taken by Mundell in 2016 with only 1230 more votes than SNP candidate Joan McAlpine.

This time McAlpine thinks the impact of Brexit and the desperate need for new job opportunities for young people in the area could swing it to the SNP.

The National took to Dumfries to speak to voters about their priorities and found – party allegiances aside – the issue of young people leaving the town for better opportunities and the decline of the High Street topped the main issues for the area.

There are scores of empty retail properties that line the main thoroughfare of the town and the South of Scotland Enterprise, launched by the Scottish Government at the start of the pandemic, have thrown their weight behind a community-led project to breathe life back into those abandoned shops.

The Midsteeple Quarter, which has also received funding from the local council and Creative Scotland, have so far purchased three High Street properties and are repurposing them for community use as well as turning the abandoned flats above into affordable housing.

READ MORE: Key battleground: Eastwood – Residents feel they have been 'let down by Jackson Carlaw'

It’s an independent project but one that is desperately needed as young people flock to bustling areas of the central belt to find opportunities that the town is lacking. McAlpine said: “There’s the decline of retail, which is not unique to Dumfries, but Dumfries probably has more retail in the town than many other towns of its size.

“You’ll have also seen a phenomenon called land banking where companies buy a property and then sit on it hoping the value will increase in some distant future, which is of course not happening.

“That actually makes it difficult for services to move in because rents are so high, again not a phenomenon unique to Dumfries, but the community empowerment legislation that the SNP government has passed has allowed the community to come in and take advantage of the land reform legislation and community empowerment legislation to buy the buildings that have been lying doing nothing. And their plan is to turn them into housing with services as well, and sort of mixed housing.

“It was a really interesting community-led experiment [Midsteeple Quarter] and has attracted attention from across the UK so it’s really very exciting, and I’m really glad the South of Scotland enterprise have thrown their weight behind it.”

Another issue beginning to come to the forefront in the rural area, which depends heavily on manufacturing, agriculture and food and drink, is the impact of Brexit on imports and exports.

McAlpine said: “On my election leaflet I’ve got farmers talking about how they can’t get spare parts for their machinery because imports have been affected as well as exports. The same farmer can’t export his pedigree herds to Europe, it’s very difficult, so there’s huge difficulties being caused by Brexit already.

“In a rural economy and an economy with a large amount of manufacturing, that’s going to hit us hard. Having an MSP who is committed to rejoining the European Union and certainly keeping pace with our European partners would be an improvement.”

Derry Rogerson, 24, a business owner in Dumfries, has also felt the effects of Brexit and said this was one of the main reasons he backs independence.

He said: “I think for me it’s more that we could do much better – the restriction of money, the restriction of policy – we can make better decisions for the next generation that aren’t governed by people that don’t live here, that aren’t from here and don’t understand the culture. It’s a collective of four different countries, not just England, and our culture is completely and utterly different.”

On the issue of young people leaving Dumfries for education and jobs, Rogerson added: “Opportunities at the moment are based in the central belt, that’s relevant across most countries. I think where the difference is here you’ve got a vast amount of young people who don’t have many opportunities.

“I was very fortunate with job opportunities down south which allowed me to come back and re-evaluate how I wanted to proceed with my life and my business focuses solely on keeping young people in this region for the digital technology so it’s massively important that rural comm-unities get just as much input.

“I think personally the SNP needs to do a little bit more in rural communities.”

However, not everyone in Dumfriesshire backs the SNP. Tory voter Louise King, 64, thinks the Border will be an issue for many. Asked if she thought the SNP would ever win the seat, the retired midwife said: “I don’t think so. This area has got more to lose in a way because it’s so close to the Border and people do need to travel across it.

“It’s all very well for people in the central belt because they’ll probably work within that environment, whereas down here there is a lot of cross-border travel and I think that’s a big issue for people down here because of our location.”

We also spoke to a few undecided voters, like Linda Trainor, 62, who said she supports independence but “isn’t a fan” of Nicola Sturgeon.

She said: “I think we should be independent; I would vote for it.

“The recovery from the pandemic is important, but I’m also worried about the effect it has had on the kids.

“I have a granddaughter who has now got anxiety because of everything that’s gone on, she’s only 14. So I think education and helping our young people should come first.”