Highlands and Islands MSP Jamie Halcro Johnston has secured cross-party support for a debate on the future sustainability of remote, rural and island communities.
The Conservative MSP’s motion calls on MSPs to recognise that policy must be designed that recognises the circumstances facing rural, remote and island communities in Scotland.
He says that on the SNP’s watch local public services have either been downgraded or centralised and many no longer have a visible presence in rural and remote areas. Mr Halcro Johnston also believes that the rural economy has been badly hit in recent years with farming and fishing sectors under real pressure with more red tape harming the visitor economy too.
He added that a lack of affordable housing and a failure to upgrade transport links including trunk roads, railway lines and the SNP’s ongoing ferries fiasco mean many people have to move away to get opportunities.
A date is yet to be confirmed but will be advised as soon as it is agreed.
Jamie Halcro Johnston MSP, who is also Scottish Conservative shadow agriculture, connectivity and islands minister and convener of the Cross-Party Group on Islands, said:
“I’m pleased to have already secured cross-party support among MSPs for this crucial debate.
“The SNP’s two decades in power has seen our rural, remote and island communities - particularly in the Highlands and Islands - abandoned and their needs neglected at every turn.
“Many public services have been downgraded or centralised and are no longer guaranteed to be on people’s doorsteps.
“For too long policy decisions made by SNP ministers have failed to take into account the specific circumstances facing these communities.
“That has been deeply harmful for our rural economy and sectors like farming and fishing have borne the brunt of decisions which have been totally disconnected from their needs.
“I hope my debate will be the wake-up call that SNP ministers need to finally ditch their current approach. We need policies that meet the interests of these areas and ensure they will have access to public services when they need them, but right now the SNP’s approach is threatening to escalate the depopulation crisis being keenly felt in these communities.”
