In my continuing engagement with the Scottish fishing industry, one subject that keeps coming up is that of ‘spatial squeeze.’
The concept of spatial squeeze comes from competing requirements of our marine space and resources.
Last week, I raised the issue in Parliament with UK Government Fisheries Minister, Mark Spencer MP.
Offshore wind and marine protected areas are generally positive developments but, if not planned carefully, they could also create a conflict with other parts of the marine economy – particularly fishing.
The SNP/Green Scottish Government’s plans for Highly Protected Marine Areas – represent a particularly draconian and poorly though out approach to conservation.
Therefore, I continue to seek assurances from Ministers that the fishing industry will have a seat at the table when decisions are made in this area.
I was pleased to receive confirmation that the UK Government will continue to support the sector when the current Energy Bills Relief Scheme is replaced with the Energy Bills Discount scheme in April.
Historically – and prior to the current energy price inflation crisis – seafood processing has missed out on intense energy usage support, despite that support being available to other food processing sectors, e.g. pork, poultry and grain milling.
Last week, as a member of the House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee, I questioned energy companies on lessons learned from Storm Arwen.
This was timely, given that Banff and Buchan residents had just come through power outages caused by Storm Otto that weekend.
I asked about the lessons that had been learned from Storm Arwen, which actions had been applied and, perhaps more importantly, which actions had not yet been applied yet.
One of the key concerns raised by reviews of Storm Arwen was the disproportionate impact on rural communities.
Although much has been done to protect the main ‘backbone’ of the network, some of those most isolated rural customers – particularly at the end of transmission lines – remain vulnerable to future storms until the risk of falling trees is removed.
I will continue to work with network operators to ensure these issues are addressed.
Finally, nobody should be surprised by Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement of her intention to resign recently.
I have mentioned before in this column my concerns that much of the current SNP/Green Coalition’s initiatives have been poorly thought out and rushed through.
The Gender Recognition Reform Bill of course received widespread attention and caused much concern.
The proposed ban on alcohol branded merchandise and glassware and the much-maligned Deposit Return Scheme, posed a very real risk to the Scottish drinks industry.
But we have known for a long time that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP have repeatedly failed to meet their own targets on health, education, broadband among others.
The ongoing saga of £500 million (and counting) on ferries that have never been delivered, not to mention ‘taking her eye off the ball’ which led to record increases in drug deaths.
I’m not going to comment on the merits or otherwise of the different candidates to replace Nicola Sturgeon as leader of the SNP and First Minister.
Whoever it is, they now have an opportunity to move away from the politics of grievance and division and focus on the real priorities of the people and businesses of Scotland
But as long as their priority is the breaking up of our United Kingdom, they will not have Scotland’s best interests at heart.
