Scottish Government Islands Plan Consultation Event
Thursday July 4th – North Walls Community School
National Islands Plan PosterDoors open and refreshments served 5.15pm.
Event start 5.30pm
All Welcome
This is Hoy & Walls chance to have our say on what we want included in the Islands Plan and Island Communities Impact Assessments. For those who can’t make it there’s a link below to the consultation online.
The Islands Plan and Island Communities Impact Assessments are being brought into force as part of the Islands Act 2018 and are due to be in place by the end of 2019. These 2 items are designed to improve outcomes for all islands. Progress will be reviewed against targets for the next 5 years at least. These consultation events are designed to provide Scottish Government with details of what works on islands, the issues which islanders want to be addressed and how outcomes can be improved. There will be representatives from the Scottish Government, The Scottish Governments Islands Team, Scottish Islands Federation and the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG) who are helping to frame the Islands Plan.
The consultation events are designed to be open to the public and to capture the views of all island residents. The events follow a structure so the results from each can be compared and categorised. For once, it’s not the usual “be talked at” type of consultation. The events are interactive and build on participants’ responses to questions on specific areas. They are held in a world-cafe type format where, after an introduction, people discuss, agree and rank their responses to a number of set questions, the top issues from each table are shared with the whole room, discussed and during the process the major agreed issues, possible solutions and requests come to the fore. This allows a wide range of views to be heard and discussed. The process takes about 2 hours.
The Islands team are aware that there has been criticism that there has been a fair bit of consultation in the past, with sometimes no feedback. For that reason, each island’s issues arising from the events will be summarised at the end of the event. A report of each event will be emailed to participants shortly afterwards and each island’s report will form part of the Islands Plan documentation. These reports will also form a basis for monitoring the Islands Plan’s progress each year.
Pictures and some details from events already held on other islands are on the Islands Team Facebook page Scottish Islands Team.
The Scottish Government explain:
The Scottish Government is running these sessions because they want to understand what works really well on your island, but also the challenges the island community is facing. They’d like to hear from you because this is an historic moment in Scottish Policy, one in which island communities have the opportunity to shape their own future by feeding into the National Islands Plan. Your information will be used to shape the National Islands Plan so that it responds truly to the wishes, desires and concerns of island communities. Scottish Government and the team supporting the consultation will organise a session that will allow them to develop a sense of the vision and challenges stemming from your island and will get back in touch after the face to face event to be sure that they captured properly the views of those who participated.
Please contact Ann MacDonald or The Island of Hoy Development Trust if you have any queries about the event or would like more information.
Consultation link