Scotland's first rural parliament

Rural parliament to examine jobs and transport issues 29/7/14

Scotland’s first rural parliament will examine economic issues which challenge affect work and life in regions outside the urban sprawl.

The inaugural Scottish Rural Parliament is being in Oban in November and will bring together 400 people from rural communities and decision making bodies to make recommendations about the best way forward on key themes.

It will look at rural businesses and employment as well as land use, planning and land reform.

Other issues include transport infrastructure, broadband and connectivity.

Protecting natural assets and adapting to environmental changes is also on the agenda.

Support for communities to lead with confidence will also be a topic for debate.

Delivery of health and social care will be adopted as an issue for the future.

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead said; “My ambition for the Scottish Rural Parliament is to give rural communities a stronger voice and these emerging themes reflect the big issues facing those who live and work in rural Scotland today.

“It’s great to see the Rural Parliament making progress and the growing number of people getting involved which is key to its future success.”

Chair John Hutchison said; “This is a major step forward in delivering a collective voice for rural Scotland. We’re pleased to have had guidance from so many rural people in setting our themes and can now move ahead to create Scotland’s first Rural Parliament.

“The themes reflect a broad range of the challenges that are faced by people in rural communities and we will be examining them in some detail before presenting our findings to the Rural Parliament in November.”

The Scottish Rural Parliament will bring together community people and decision-makers from public bodies, NGOs and private bodies, with the aim of improving rural policy and finding better ways of providing services. There are currently local rural parliament events taking place all over rural Scotland which can be accessed by the public and which will contribute to the discussion at the Rural Parliament.

The rural parliament follows in the footsteps of other European countries where similar bodies have been established for over 20 years and provides a link to this network through the European Rural Parliament.