DO SCOTLAND'S islands have a viable future? That was the central question posed at the third of the eight ScotsmanDebates being held this year. The debate was held in Sgoil Lionacleit, the secondary school in Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides. Chaired by Lesley Riddoch, the writer and broadcaster, it examined a range of issues central to the future of Scotland's islands.
The panel was made up of Professor Jane Farmer, of the UHI Millennium Institute (UHI), forerunner of a university of the Highlands and Islands; David MacLennan, Scottish Natural Heritage's area manager for the Western Isles and Rum; Angus MacMillan,
chairman of Storas Uibhist, the community body which took over the South Uist Estates; Ronald Mackinnon of Lochboisdale Community Council; Angus Peter Campbell, a poet, writer and broadcaster; and Kevin Donkers, a fifth-year pupil at Sgoil Lionacleit – selected to highlight the significance of the islands' young people to their future.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING THE ISLANDS AND WHAT IS THE BIGGEST POTENTIAL?Professor Jane Farmer (JF): "One of the issues is about accessible, high-quality rural health services and maintaining those. The biggest potential is with regard to infrastructure. Remote areas of Scotland have to be broadbandable and must have good mobile phone coverage; that is a fundamental thing that could be done."
David MacLennan (DM): "The biggest problem facing communities, certainly in the Western Isles, is depopulation. We have seen a huge change to the place over the past 20 years and we need to put in place mechanisms to reverse that decline, to make communities more sustainable. To do that we need to make use of every opportunity we can. The high-quality environment we have here in the Western Isles, and many other islands, is something we can capitalise on, to sell to the rest of the world to bring wealth to these communities."
Ronald Mackinnon (RM): "The biggest problem on the island is getting on and off it. To go to Glasgow by public transport, you leave at 9am and get to Glasgow at 8pm, and in the winter it's worse – it can be anything up to 14 hours. A service from Lochboisdale to Mallaig would give us a three-hour crossing instead of five hours. Caledonian MacBrayne should wake up and listen to the people."
Angus MacMillan (AM): "The key things are population, jobs, and housing – that's what retains population. But it will not happen unless we take a commercial attitude in terms of infrastructure and transportation. Numerous opportunities are being lost in these islands because ferry services have not been available at the right time."
A member of the audience described ferry services as "minimalist", adding: "We are not being ignored, but services were better in the 1960s and 70s than they are today. There is a basic survival service and that's it."
Kevin Donkers (KD): "I agree the reason for depopulation is lack of jobs. If there was more infrastructure, possibly more people would stay here. A lot of people my age are crofters but some see opportunities on the mainland in engineering or building work rather than here. If things like the Lewis wind farm and other infrastructure (were built] there would be more opportunities."
Angus Peter Campbell (APC): "The biggest problem is that you keep using the word 'problem'. When Gaelic or island living or rural areas are mentioned, the word problem is always attached to it. Even the words Outer Hebrides sound like outer space; its like the far side of the Moon or the edge of the world. An important thing is for us to get a sense that we are at the centre of the universe and we can alter the map of Scotland, like Shetland and Orkney have done. They became the centre and Glasgow, Edinburgh and Stirling became the periphery.
"It's about having your destiny in your own hands rather than being a victim. Shetlanders did it by having a cracking oil deal 30 years ago.
"I find it a bit rich that David says he is passionate about repopulating the islands when in Lewis, with all the controversy surrounding the wind farm development, birds and wildlife at the end of the day took precedence over people."
DM: "We are presently looking at the renewable energy potential of the Western Isles which can be done in a manner compatible with the legal obligations we have to meet our conservation objectives. We cannot hide from the fact there are directives in place which the UK government has a duty to take account of in planning decisions. We need to find a way of maximising the potential for renewables development, taking account of the legal obligations."
SO IS THE WESTERN ISLES GOING TO BE A WIND FARM-FREE ZONE?DM: "Not at all. There is a wind farm in Lewis and others have consent in Harris."
APC: "This manifests the whole Scottish mindset that we find a reason not to do something as opposed to saying 'here's a proposal, let's find a way of opening it up'."
Wilson McKinlay (a local resident) referred to Donald Trump's £1 billion golf resort plan in Aberdeenshire and asked: "We have mainland businesses saying 'forget about the environment, this is bringing in a lot of money'. If they are going down that road, we should surely have the same opportunities to overturn legislation. I would like to see future development here because, at the end of the day, what is threatened, beside the birds and everything else, is the people. If you can't protect the people you will have no birds." (Applause.)
DM: "There are a number of designations that fulfil different purposes. With the Lewis wind farm, the one everyone talks about, the issues had nothing to do with landscape. The issues were about habitat and the birds that use the area. Landscape was the issue for the wind farm further south in Lewis (Eishken]. If we want to see renewable energy developments in the Hebrides you have to accept there is going to be a change in the landscape – you can't hide a wind farm – but what we need to say is 'where do we want to put these things? Where will they have least impact on the birds that are of international importance? And where can we have wind farms so we can get the benefits of renewable energy while maintaining the conservation interests, which, let's face it, pull in tourism and should be protected for future generations."
(The community-owned South Uist Estate plans to build five wind turbines which will eventually bring in £250,000 a year for re-investment into the community.)
AM: "The energy will be sold to the grid and the revenue comes to the community. It's that revenue that will then produce the opportunities to take forward the projects we want, with jobs created as a result. This development is key to bringing forward the aspirations of Storas Uibhist and it's whether you want to have this kind of income-generating activity or whether (you abide by] the (environmental] designations that have been imposed without a lot of consultation."
(A vote of the 70-strong audience showed all but one supported the five-turbine plan, with one abstention.)
SHOULD ISLANDS HAVE THEIR OWN GOVERNMENT MINISTER? The question was asked by Calum MacAulay, a local hotelier, who added: "The islands should be represented at ministerial level. We need to have the heavyweights of the Scottish Government looking after our interests. At the moment it floats between departments depending on what topic you're talking about."
RM: "We have people elected to represent us but they come up against a wall. It seems that if you keep the Central Belt happy, that will be all right and they tend to forget about us. I don't think it will make much difference how many people you have in Edinburgh, you won't get anywhere."
APC: "The obvious danger (of having a dedicated minister] is that it becomes a ghetto. If you look at the development over the past two generations, the huge successes have come through not being in a corner but by being in partnership and working with national government, European government and, indeed, with Holyrood."
JF: "There are issues in peninsulas, like Ardnamurchan, which sometimes lose out because they are joined to the mainland. A lot of islands have great health services whereas some of the peninsulas don't." (In a vote, only three of the audience supported the island minister call, some saying the remit and size of the area, from Shetland to Arran, would be too large.)
HAS THE GAELIC ACT GONE FAR ENOUGH IN SUPPORTING GAELIC SPEAKERS IN SCOTLAND?APC: "The Gaelic Act and Bord na Gaidhlig (national Gaelic development agency] is a mere sop. Here are some interesting statistics – the budget for the Gaelic Books Council in Scotland is around £300,000 and it has a full-time staff of four. The Welsh Books Council has a full-time staff of 49 and an annual budget of £7.2 million. When you look at what's happened in Gaelic, an unelected quango has been set up with seven or eight staff in an office in Inverness and they are supposed to sort the issue of Gaelic. All they can do is play with the money they have been given. If the government and Scotland were serious about the huge importance of the cultural and linguistic heritage, and saw the Gaelic language as important as birds, then maybe some of the £674 million being spent on the M74 extension or the £500 billion spent on Trident could come to preserve and develop this amazing historic and cultural asset we have in Scotland." (Applause.)
DM: "I'm encouraged by the future of Gaelic. My teachers taught me French and Latin and I was not encouraged to learn Gaelic, which is a shameful indictment of education at that time. Things have changed and I'm pleased to say my children are learning Gaelic."
An audience member said more should be done to encourage Gaelic-based employment on the islands: "There is a lot of Gaelic-medium employment on the mainland from Glasgow to Inverness and some other islands, especially Lewis. But there's hardly any Gaelic employment in the Uists or Barra. If there was employment here for Gaelic speakers they wouldn't have to move away."
Another said: "There are a lot of well-qualified young people, but they all live on the mainland. Fifty or 100 of them are working in the Gaelic industry, mostly in Glasgow, and lots of them would like to live here if there were job opportunities."
WHAT IS BEING DONE TO ENCOURAGE YOUNG PEOPLE TO STAY AND WORK IN THE AREA? (Asked by Katerina Sachrova, from the Czech Republic, who now teaches in Daliburgh, South Uist, and Canadian Heather Wilson, who recently lost her job as a PE teacher in South Uist.)
JF: "Educational institutions like UHI have a role. I was in Greenland and they have a tiny university which was bringing in people from around the world to look at the culture and all the things that are special about the country. That is the sort of thing we should be doing in the islands. Culture can bring people in."
RM: "People go to the mainland to finish their education and get a job then get married. You can work from home now and opportunities are there if you grab them. But there is something on here every night of the week. If you want to get off your backside there is something there for you to do."
WHAT NEXT?THE FUTURE OF THE ARTS IN SCOTLAND, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, chaired by Scotsman columnist Joyce McMillan 28 August, 7pm
INDEPENDENCE AND THE MILITARY: HOW WOULD IT WORK? Victoria Halls, Helensburgh 24 September, 7pm
IS SCOTLAND MAKING A MESS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY? Town Hall, Jedburgh 14 October, 7pm
THE MEDIA SCOTLAND WANTS, Mitchell Library, Glasgow 24 October, 7pm
PROGRESS BEYOND POLITICS, Albert Halls, Stirling 4 December, 7pm
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