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On behalf of the committee, I express my thanks to the people who gave generously of their time on those visits, one of which also involved a full committee meeting in Kirkcudbright.
That is a controversial point. People need only visit the Sound of Barra to hear the reaction of local communities on what might happen if there is the imposition—as the communities might see it—of protected areas.
You have legal qualifications that I do not, but a legal question would arise if they did otherwise.One example is extreme event flooding, which can affect almost anybody. I visited a new housing estate some weeks ago that has twice suffered inundation because of extreme events.
I thank Debbie Burton and the rest of the staff here at Discovery Point for all their hard work to organise the event for us.The purpose of our visit is to continue our examination of the Scottish Government's expenditure proposals for the next year.
If Hilary Benn or Gordon Brown can spare the time to visit Scotland's hill farms or islands, they will see for themselves that the impact of the outbreak on rural Scotland is anything but small.
I invite the committee to express its support for that visit. I am totally in favour of the visit—I was in Czechoslovakia during the velvet revolution.
Committee reports
Date published:
12 September 2023
Perhaps the single most important lesson from our visits was that there is no ideal model to copy, and that both the Scottish Government and the Parliament should take time to develop their own models that are adapted to Scotland’s needs and circumstances.