Map-makers banned from boxing off the Shetland Isles
SHETLAND has at last been liberated – from those boxed- off sections of maps which put the island group closer to the mainland than it actually is.
Map-makers insist that moving the islands allows them to save space and avoid creating maps which are ‘mostly sea’.
But under a section of the Islands (Scotland) Act, they must now be displayed ‘in a manner that accurately and proportionately represents their geographical location’.
Private map-makers and the Ordnance Survey are excluded from the act and there is also a get-out clause for public bodies – if they offer a good enough reason.
However, MSP Tavish Scott, who fought for the change, said: ‘There is no excuse now for the Scottish government, its agencies or others to put Shetland in a box.’ He said it had been ‘intensely annoying’ for islanders, adding: ‘The box is closed. It doesn’t exist. Shetland is now in the right place.’
Islands Minister Paul Wheelhouse said the new Act ‘introduces a number of measures to ensure there is a sustained focus across government and the wider public sector to meet the needs of island communities. On a more visual front, it ensures Shetland will no longer be “boxed off” on maps which has been a cause of irritation to those living in Shetland.’
A spokesman for Ordnance Survey pointed out that Shetland was just over 150miles from the most northerly part of Scotland and it would be ‘virtually impossible’ to produce one of its paper maps ‘with any usable detail, of this vast geography’.
Shetland has a population of around 23,000, and its main port of Lerwick is closer to Oslo than it is to London.