A key piece of legislation passed last week at Holyrood lets down communities across the Highlands and Islands.
That’s according to Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston who has called the Natural Environment Bill, which passed its final stage in the Scottish Parliament, a missed opportunity to do more for rural, remote and island communities.
Speaking following Stage 3, Mr Halcro Johnston, who proposed a number of amendments to the Bill focused on supporting rural communities, expressed his disappointment that his measures were blocked by SNP MSPs.
Jamie Halcro Johnston, who is also the Scottish Conservatives shadow agriculture minister, said—
“This is another example of an SNP Government, based in Edinburgh, riding roughshod over problems in rural and island communities.
“This Bill was supposed to be a game-changer for the environment, but instead we have targets on biodiversity with no clarity on how we’ll reach them.
“I sought to use this Bill to provide much-need transparency over environmental farming programmes like the chaotic Future Farming Investment Scheme introduced last year. The SNP voted it down.
“I sought to make sure goose management schemes, tackling damage to our environment and to farms, had the powers they needed to work effectively. The SNP voted it down.
“I sought to introduce sensible provisions that would stop island farmers, who would be by far the worst hit, from the massively disproportionate impact of changes to greening rules for farm payments. The SNP voted it down.
“I do however cautiously welcome the commitment from Ministers to at least look at how changes to business rates reliefs might land small rural businesses with large tax bills, simply because they hold non-commercial sporting rights or shoot for pest control. It is clear that announcements in the budget, targeted at big shooting estates, simply weren’t thought through – and could have hit those involved in issues like pest control.
“Once again, this Bill has demonstrated that this is not a government focused on the needs of rural communities or those of us outside the central belt.”
