Council / Energy among discussion topics as SIC leader meets government ministers
SHETLAND Islands Council leader Emma Macdonald says she took the chance to meet with a number of Scottish Government ministers at an SNP conference at the weekend – and believes this personal touch is helping engagement with those at the top.
Among her meetings in Edinburgh were sessions with first minister John Swinney and his deputy Kate Forbes.
Macdonald also said it was a chance to stress the message that it is “unfair” that islanders living near large energy developments have some of the highest levels of fuel poverty in the country.
Events have been held locally in recent days heralding the completion of SSE’s Viking Energy wind farm in Shetland, but there has been some anger in the community that the developer received £2.5 million in “constraint” payments during August to turn turbines off.
“I think we managed to pack quite a lot of meetings into our two days in Edinburgh, and it was a good opportunity to talk about ‘Energising Shetland’,” Macdonald said.
She added that Viking may be good news for Scotland and the UK but in the Shetland community people are not seeing it in the same way as it is not giving them the “benefits they would be looking for”.
Macdonald added that it seemed some government ministers thought the concern about Viking was around the visual impact.
“While the visual impact obviously is an issue for many people, actually that absolute unfairness [regarding the cost of energy] is really what seems to be hitting home to people,” the leader said.
“The fact that people’s electricity bills are double the UK mainland’s […] and people are unable to heat their homes well and live well and yet are surrounded by energy – that’s just not okay,” the leader said.
Some of the other politicians which the council engaged with included Richard Lochhead (business minister), Neil Gray (health), Jim Fairlie (connectivity) and Ivan McKee (public finance).
Other topics raised with minsters included the emergence of offshore wind farm development and also the importance of the local fishing and aquaculture sectors.
“We speak to people quite regularly – we’ve got really good engagement with government, and that’s something I’ve worked really hard on,” Macdonald added.
“Politics is about people, and politics is about relationships and it’s about trust.”
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