Localised powers

Grant calls for localised powers

3 May 2016

Western Isles Labour candidate Rhoda Grant has hit out at “centralised policies which take no account of peripheral communities and their urgent needs.”

Mrs Grant called for the revival of Iomairt aig an Oir - Initiative at the Edge - which the Labour government introduced in 1998 with a view to empowering fragile communities and breaking down bureaucratic barriers.

She said: “Throughout this campaign, I have listened to a consistent message about how powers and resources are being taken away from communities in the Western Isles while high-handed decisions are made over their heads, mainly in Edinburgh.

“Whatever the outcome of Thursday’s election, this trend has to be reversed. I have heard repeatedly from crofters, fishermen and community organisations that there is simply no understanding in Edinburgh of how difficult it is for people to make their livelihoods here, even without constant barriers being put in their way.”

Mrs Grant believes a radical restructuring of quangos and government departments is required.

She said: “In Ireland they have a Ministry for the Gaeltacht with economic powers and in Norway there is a strong bias in legislation towards maintaining population in peripheral communities.

“In Scotland, exactly the opposite approach has been implemented by the SNP. They want to take all power to the centre. The outrageous behaviour of the Crofting Commission is only the latest example of how communities in the Western Isles are suffering from bad legislation and crude implementation.”

Mrs Grant said that public services in many communities are at breaking-point because there are so few people of working age to provide them. She said: “There has to be far closer integration of crofting regulation and local needs, particularly for housing. That can only be delivered effectively at a very local level.

“National guarantees on services like childcare, which is so crucial for women who want to work, are meaningless because provision barely exists. Centralised policies take no account of these realities and the result is an ageing and declining population.

“It should be possible to tackle these issues across party lines but the SNP is so thirled to centralisation that it is now the barrier to progress. I started this campaign saying that the Western Isles needs a stronger voice in Edinburgh and everything I have encountered over the past few weeks has confirmed that.

“Labour will continue to fight for a very localized Western Isles agenda because without it, the prospects for jobs and services is worryingly bleak without any sign of an adequate response.”