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Good morning, and thank you for joining us. I want to ask about local authorities and how they can best support the delivery of integrated public and active travel networks. Do they have a role? What should that role be in co-ordinating information flows, ticketing and the development of transport hubs?

I will come first to Ewan Wallace. To bring the issue to life, could you reflect on what that means for cities and for semi-rural areas? For example, cities have multimodal challenges, and in relation to semi-rural areas, there are proposals for park and rides on the M8 at the Heartlands junction and at the new junction at Winchburgh on the M9. Should that be the role of the local authority or of the transport partnership?

I will then ask Paul White to talk about the role of integrated transport hubs from a bus perspective, before inviting Steve Gooding to reflect on what he expects in relation to cars and park and ride, and to relate that to the concept of shared electric vehicles, which he referred to earlier.

I will direct my second question to Ewan Wallace, unless the other two witnesses want to come in—I will be guided by the convener on time. I want to discuss the current funding arrangements for active travel infrastructure. Public funds are channelled through Sustrans. Is that compatible with national and local climate ambitions? If not, what funding arrangements should be in place? My question is about co-ordination of funding for active travel and a local authority’s perspective on the role of Sustrans.

Thank you. I certainly recognise that situation from a constituency case point of view, so that is a point well made.

Good morning, everyone. I, too, am interested in buildings and their use. When we were in Dumfries, we were very struck by the fact that it is a large town, but there are vacancies across the second and third floors of all the retail premises, whether or not they are filled. If we want people to live and work in town centres so that they get a great experience as customers on the doorstep, how can we tackle vacancies above the first floor?

I will go to Maxine Smedley first. What has been the experience of Boots stores? What is done with the properties in our towns that have second or third floors? Just-in-time supply means that properties that have previously been used for storage do not need to be used for that. What is preventing you from helping or enabling those properties to be put to residential use? It might now be in your interest for those to be used if you want people to live in town centres.

To be fair to Maxine Smedley, she explained what Boots was doing with Macmillan and others in relation to service provision.

David Lonsdale, can you future think about this, too? I know that people are focused on running their businesses and are under a lot of pressure, especially given that the cost of living crisis might affect people coming into their businesses. If we want our town centres to be places where people will spend time, is there anything that can be done with landlords to enable that to happen? Your membership may have little influence on that, but they have an interest. Is there something that we can do collectively to bring back vibrancy to our town centres, above the first floor? What is preventing your members from doing that?

What about your members’ relationship with landlords? What is your overview of the pattern of activity of landlords of and investors in properties occupied by your retailers? They might have been sitting on properties for a long time, because they thought that they would sell for a higher price in the future, but that prospect has perhaps diminished more than ever. What are your members saying about that?

Unfortunately, many hospitality venues have said that they cannot open on certain days, because of a shortage of staff. That may be an opportunity to drive up wages, but there is a shortage of chefs or a shortage of labour and, obviously, we have had the impact of Brexit. Are you seeing any change, recently, post-Covid?

I am very conscious of the time. I am happy with what you have provided, Bryan, and will hand back to the convener.

Martin Newman, can you talk us through the implications for absentee landlords that we are able to contact and leaseholds? Is there any creative way of incentivising the use of those upper spaces that would benefit the retailers underneath?

I thank members of USDAW and Unite for what they did during Covid.

Your members will be very close to customers and will have a view. Because of your role as industry leaders, they will inform you about what the sector will have to be like if we want to see vibrant town centres with vibrant retail and hospitality businesses. Other committee members will ask about your members’ experiences; I will give you an opportunity to talk about what the ingredients would be and how you see the future of town centres. I put the question to Joanne Cairns and then to Bryan Simpson.