Community councillor issues rally cry over marine areas consultation
Community councils are being urged to make their voices heard before time runs out on marine protection proposals that could be catastrophic for coastal and island communities.
Mull community councillor Mary-Jean Devon is on a mission to rally every community council in Argyll and Bute, the Western Isles and Highlands so a consolidated message reaches minister for environment and land reform Màiri McAllan by Monday April 17 when the Scottish Government’s consultation on controversial Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) ends.
From Oban to Barra, Luing to the isles of Lewis, Harris and the Uists, Skye and Lochalsh, community councillors are being asked to stand up and be counted, making sure voices from each of their communities are taken into account by decision-makers.
Each community council contacted is being urged to take a vote and to record the numbers for and against the HPMAs, as well as state what they make of proposals for strictly prohibitive marine areas.
“I’m hoping the responses will send a consolidated message to the minister and that it will have an impact on the outcome. It is a dreadful consultation. It’s very non-specific. No one even knows where these HPMAs would be, people are having to just assume. Everyone I’ve been speaking to so far has been totally opposed to it.
“It flies in the faces of the Island Bill which was supposed to be about repopulation and thriving communities. These proposals would make a nonsense of it, driving people away instead,” said community councillor Devon.
As well as potentially wiping out fishing communities, tour operators could also have their livelihoods snatched from them, she said.
“Tourists come to go out on boats, to experience wildlife in our seas, to see the puffins on Treshnish, to land on Staffa. It’s not going to do any island or coastal economy any good if this is prohibited.
“The Scottish Government isn’t proposing these HPMAs on the east coast where they have wind turbines and oil, yet they want to asset strip us.”
The consultation closes on Monday April 17. You can respond here www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-highly-protected-marine-areas-consultation-paper.
Oban South and the Isles councillor Andrew Kain told The Oban Times that if HPMA proposals are realised, then strategic objectives outlined in government policies such as the National Islands Plan would be “effectively dead at the altar of what appears to be ideology”.
The Clyde Fishermen’s Association has members in Oban, Mull and Tarbert. Its executive secretary Elaine Whyte wants Argyll and Bute Council to publicly show its support to fishing communities.
“Argyll and Bute Council has been a bit quiet publicly. We need to hear a bit of support from our local council.
“They may be considering what approach to take, but I do feel from the feedback that I’m getting from our fishermen that we need to hear that the council is understanding the impact of this. We have to see something more public from them now.” Kintyre and Islands councillor Alastair Redman is urging as many people as possible to sign an online petition started by the Communities Inshore Fisheries Alliance.
He said: “In England, three HPMAs covering just 0.53 per cent of English waters are to be trialled as pilots. What is proposed in Scotland are permanent designations of at least 10 per cent of our seas, to a completely unrealistic timescale and with no proper foundations for their purpose.”
South Kintyre councillor Tommy MacPherson is appealing to everyone to lobby their ward councillors who will all be asked to contribute to Argyll and Bute Council’s response.
▮ www.change.org/p/scottish-government-we-sea-community-weseacommunity