No connection

I am writing to set the record straight about a decision relating to the Cairngorm National Park Local Development Plan and a proposed development by ­Tulloch Homes.

In my role as constituency MSP, I pursued an earlier procedural issues on behalf of the ­developers, who are based in my constituency.

I often do so, both for ­developers and for those objecting to a development. I should make it clear that I have no ­ministerial responsibility for such decisions.

You published on 27 February a letter from a Mr Roy Turnbull of Nethybridge suggesting that there is a connection between Mr Angus Tulloch, a former donor to the SNP, and Tulloch Homes, and that somehow this influenced Scottish ministers’ decision-making in this case.

Tulloch Homes have written to me to confirm that Tulloch Homes, a business founded in 1925, has never had any connection with a Mr Angus Tulloch; has never made a donation the SNP and has never been asked to make such a donation by me or anyone else from the Scottish Government.

The suggestion to that effect which was printed in your letters page is completely without foundation.

Mr Angus Tulloch has also written to me similarly confirming that he has never had any connection with Tulloch Homes.

Fergus Ewing

MSP, Inverness and Nairn

Holyrood