Hansard

Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I apologise for having another go at a last speech. I had intended to make my last speech last week, but I had not realised that this debate was coming up. When I saw that it was Rob Gibson’s debate, and that it was to do with localism, I could not resist putting my name forward.

I have known Rob Gibson for many years. He has been very active in the Highlands and Islands on land issues in my constituency, in Skye and elsewhere. He has an excellent knowledge of the subject and a passion for it as well. It has been a privilege to work with him and with Graeme Dey, Mike Russell, Angus MacDonald and the other members of the Rural Affairs, Climate Change and Environment Committee over the past couple of years. It has been hugely interesting and very appropriate to my constituency. I have thoroughly enjoyed it, and being part of getting the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill passed has been a real privilege.

I was a trustee of the Stornoway Trust, so I suppose that I was a landowner for a couple of years, many years ago. There is no doubt in my mind that there is an appetite in the Highlands for change. I have approached the Government on the islands bill. The minister is well aware of my suggestion that when we are looking at that bill, the Inner Hebrides, which I believe to be the neglected part of the Highlands if not of Scotland, needs to considered, as well as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. When we look at Skye, the small isles, the Argyll islands, and places such as Knoydart—basically it is an island, unless people want a 10-mile hike over the mountains—and Ardnamurchan, we see that all those areas in the west Highlands have exactly the same problems and issues as Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

I have asked the Government—I made a submission to the consultation—to consider creating a council for Skye, Lochalsh and Lochaber. Argyll is a council area, but there are many islands there. We must look at the Inner Hebrides and the west Highlands as special cases. They are different. They are many miles from Inverness. If a person is in Uig on Skye, they are 130 miles from Inverness. I know that because I was over there on Friday. It was 115 miles to Portree. I went down to Raasay for a wee while on the Saturday, and then back home on the Sunday. It was two and half hours non-stop driving. That is all within my constituency. It is crazy; it is too big. Geography must be taken into account when we look at council boundaries and sizes, as well as when we are looking at constituencies for the Scottish Parliament. It is not fair on constituents that they have so far to go to meet their MSPs.

We need to go back to the burghs—the little places with populations of, say, 10,000 to 50,000 in Highland and the greater Highlands area. Perhaps we could have a regional authority covering Moray to Argyll dealing with strategic matters, but there could also be small councils for Skye and Lochalsh, Tain, Wick, Thurso and Oban to which we would give real power and money.