The Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament continues with our petition noPE 799.They have now received all the responses with the exception of North Ayrshire Council who were asked twice to respond but didn’t do so (not a surprise to COAST members). The responses can be read in full on the Scott’ Exec’ Petitions web site. They were basically 3 for, 2 against & 1 sitting on the fence. COAST are now allowed to respond to the responses, which we are doing at the moment. The Petitions Committee are asking Prof. Callum Roberts an expert in Marine Protected Areas for his opinion of the COAST proposals.
COAST have been very impressed with the Petitions system at Holyrood.It has meant that an Island community has been able to have its say at the highest level, to have MSPs ask both Government departments & local organisations for their opinions. Most importantly we feel as if there is a slight chance of our proposal moving from the “IN LIMBO” shelves at SEERAD to the “DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT SHELF”.
After our AGM in May new committee member Kathy came up with the idea, that if we talked to SNH/National Trust nicely we could share their Marquee(tent) at the show. Kathy organised it & we had a salt water Aquarium full of all kinds of sea life from Shrimps to Anemones and displays showing what COAST are about. It was an excellent day with hundred of people interested in how we are doing.What was most interesting was, that most people couldn’t understand why the Scottish Executive hasn’t given the proposal the go ahead. “It’s so obvious” people said.
These were just a few of the points we were able to put to First Minister Jack McConnell when he visited the COAST stand later in the day. Jack listened to COAST’s frustrations with our dealings with SEERAD’s Inshore Fisheries Dept. In fact he listened to us for a good 15 minutes, hopefully taking in what COAST are really about -“let’s leave something in the sea for the next generation”
Jack did admit to buying a COAST calendar on the Island during the week so there’s still hope for the future.
