Hansard

I disagree slightly with Kenneth Gibson's allegation that the previous Executive did absolutely nothing about our marine environment for about 96 months. I appreciate that he was absent from Parliament for 48 months during the second session, but over the past eight years, we seized the opportunity, set up the advisory group on marine and coastal strategy and held a consultation on the marine national park. It is not the case that the previous Executive took absolutely no action. It is not my intention to argue that ministers in the SNP Government are not travelling in the correct direction: they are, but they could go further and faster in protecting and promoting Scotland's marine environment.

Members of all persuasions have expounded eloquently the case for the marine bill. I apologise for being totally parochial in my speech, but I will concentrate on my constituency interests in the Solway Firth, which boasts a diverse and important marine environment, as it does an important terrestrial environment. The warm waters of the gulf stream bring into the Solway Firth species that are rarely seen in Scottish waters, such as the sun fish. Basking sharks are also fairly frequent visitors to the area.

The extensive mudflats and sandflats are home to famous cockle beds, as they are to a wide variety of wading birds. They act as a refuge for overwintering species such as barnacle geese and hooper swans and are the stopping-off point for other migratory species. The sand dunes support many species that are of botanical interest. The Solway is the only part of Scotland to be home to all native amphibians and reptiles. The waters of the Solway Firth also are home to a wide range of micro algae. I understand that there are 800 species in UK waters, of which the Solway supports 300. It also supports many rarer seaweeds, which may be of less attraction to human visitors, but are important in attracting bird life and other wildlife to the Solway Firth, and therefore to the biodiversity of the area.

Those are some of the reasons for the previous Executive selecting the Solway Firth as a potential candidate for a marine national park. I am disappointed that the present Government appears to have ruled out further consideration of the results of the consultation on the marine park. However, I raised the matter in last month's members' business debate on recreational sea angling and was encouraged to hear the Minister for Environment say in his response to the debate that the matter might be revisited once "robust marine legislation" had been put in place.

Mr Rumbles and others suggested that the marine legislation might have to have an aspect of the national park legislation within it, but that is not my understanding. My understanding is that the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 would cover a marine national park, although there would have to be secondary legislation. I do not think that a marine national park would have to be part of a marine bill.

We need to know the Government's timetable for producing robust marine legislation. Thereafter, when will we return to consideration of the previous Executive's consultation on establishing a marine national park? As I said in the debate on sea angling, there is considerable support in Dumfries and Galloway for pursuing consideration of making the Solway Firth a marine national park. Some 12 per cent of organisations that responded to the previous Scottish Executive's consultation favoured the Solway Firth as the preferred location. That is a higher percentage than supported any other proposed designation.

Solway Heritage stated in its response to the consultation that a national park could provide a vehicle for bringing together the many different interests in the marine and coastal environment. It could represent the sustainable interests of the Solway as a whole and seek resolution of any conflict between those interests. In the reopening of the cockle fishery in the Solway, we have seen that such conflicts can and do arise.

Dumfries and Galloway markets itself as a natural place, and becoming Scotland's first marine national park would help to reinforce the brand. It would be another strand to the region's tourism offer. The Solway Firth is accessible to visitors—be they human, animal or fish—and although many of us would argue fervently for improvements to the region's transport links, the Solway Firth is near enough to the central belt, Northern Ireland and northern England to attract visitors on short breaks and day trips. The national park would raise the region's profile as a tourist destination.

There is opposition to the creation of a marine national park in some areas that might in the past have been perceived as the front runners. However, that should not prevent fair consideration of areas where there is more agreement about the potential of marine national park designation, such as the Solway Firth. Neither I nor the Labour Party wishes to foist a marine national park on an unwilling coastal region. I am not even saying that the Solway Firth must become Scotland's first such park. What I ask is that ministers continue to keep the door open for the establishment of a marine national park on the Solway.

Many organisations in Dumfries and Galloway that are concerned with the marine environment believe that the Solway Firth is a serious contender and that the case for its designation should be considered further. My plea to ministers is, first of all, to let us have sight of the promised robust marine legislation. There is an interest in and an appetite for seeing that legislation and progressing it. Thereafter, let us return to consideration of the merits of having a marine national park in Scotland.