News / Islands consider post referendum future
SCOTLAND’S island leaders are meeting in Shetland this week to thrash out their demands ahead of next year’s independence referendum.
Following last week’s call from Shetland MSP Tavish Scott for home rule for the isles, council leaders from the three island authorities have gathered in Lerwick for talks.
On Monday they attended the Convention of the Highlands and Islands in Lerwick’s new state of the art music cinema and music venue Mareel, with a plan to meet on Tuesday to discuss their own plans behind closed doors.
Islanders fear that the outcome of the independence referendum during tough economic times could easily lead to greater centralisation, whether in Westminster or Holyrood.
As a result they are firming up their own ideas about how to amalgamate all public services from health to waste collection under a single authority for each island group, as well as seeking a greater say in the exploitation of local waters.
Shetland Islands Council leader Gary Robinson said that the referendum would provide an ideal time to put their ideas forward.
“We had a paper commissioned a couple of years ago setting out how creating a single public authority might be done and 2014 is a perfect opportunity to take that further,” Robinson said.
Orkney Islands Council convener Steven Heddle said the islands geography made them ideally placed to have single authorities.
“The principle of devolution should be cascaded down to local authorities in general, but obviously we have a different situation in the islands that mean all our public services are operating in the same area,” he said.
“We look across the water and see examples of island authorities that have different levels of autonomy such as Faroe and Aland islands and we see advantages that they have that we would like ourselves.”
The councils hope that by the end of this year they will have agreed a list of questions and demands they can put to both sides of the constitutional debate and see which one gives them the best response.
Western Isles Council convener Angus Campbell said major areas where they would like to see power devolved included control of the seabed and inshore waters around their islands.
He also wants to see the island authorities being given a stronger footing than they currently have in any new constitution.
“Undoubtedly which ever way the vote goes there is going to be a change in the way that Scotland manages its affairs and its an opportunity for us to put our case to the very front of that,” he said.
Scotland’s finance secretary John Swinney in Lerwick for the Convention said that the government was open to discuss the future of island communities post referendum.
“We believe in local discretion and local decision making, and we are very open to a dialogue with local communities like Shetland about the degree to which local decision making can be done in localities,” he said.
Swinney added that the Scottish cabinet would be holding one of its summer meetings outside Holyrood in Shetland this year, during which they would be very interested to hear local views about the independence debate.
He added that he did not think that Tavish Scott’s call for home rule at the Liberal Democrat conference had been particularly well thought out.
Last week Scott said that Shetland and other islands should consider becoming Crown dependencies like the Isle of Man and that Shetland had a claim to the oil around its shores.
Responding to Swinney’s comments on Monday, Scott said: “Shetland will decide its future, not SNP ministers.
“We as a community must recognise this opportunity to determine how best to take forward our interests and I am delighted at the number of reponses I have had indicating they agree with that.”
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