Representatives of the three islands councils have taken part in the first Islands Working Group meeting with the UK Government.
The proposal for the working group was set out in the UK Government’s ‘Framework for the Islands’ that was published in August in response to the islands’ Our Islands Our Future campaign.
Today’s meeting in Edinburgh involved Comhairle leader, Angus Campbell, and council chief executive Malcolm Burr, as well as representatives from the Scotland Office, Department of Energy, Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Crown Estate, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Treasury and Department for Transport.
OIOF spokesman, Steven Heddle said: “We were delighted to be able to meet the Secretary of State for Scotland and representatives from a wide spectrum of UK Government departments this morning.
Islands group’s meeting with Scottish Secretary
17 November 2014
“It provided us with an important opportunity to take forward some of our priority areas, such as ensuring islands’ interests are reflected in UK Government policy making, island grid connections, fuel poverty, EU representation and the seabed owned by The Crown Estate.
“Those are some of the key points we covered in our recent submission to the Smith Commission. We also agreed to hold an Islands Summit with the Secretary of State in March 2015 and discussed the islands’ contribution, through the Scotland Office, to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.
“We made the point to the Secretary of State that there is an appetite in the islands for tangible delivery from the campaign. We feel that, through the actions identified from this meeting, we have identified the routes for delivering some of the key campaign priority areas.”
Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael commented: "I was very pleased to have the
opportunity to meet again with the islands councils and begin to turn some of the
commitments in the Islands Framework into action by agreeing on the key priorities
over the months ahead.
"Islands communities face unique challenges and today's meeting
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