Chamber and committees

If it continues in that way, I suppose that that highlights the importance of ensuring that the local councillors have good connections with island communities in their wards. Pippa Milne and Russell McCutcheon have given full answers. I wonder whether Gareth Waterson has anything to add to what they have said.

That is great. Thank you.

I thank the witnesses for coming and for the detailed evidence that they submitted. Diarmaid Lawlor started to talk about criteria. I am interested in how you weighted the different criteria when assessing the bids and in what consultation took place, specifically from an island perspective, before you decided on the criteria.

I thank our panel for joining us and for their full submissions in response to our letter.

I am interested in hearing your views on the benefits and challenges of this year’s competitive process, compared with the direct allocations of previous years. Also, how does the approach compare with how councils allocate their own funds to island projects? Is there anything that the Scottish Government can learn from how you operate? Russell McCutcheon, I will come to you first.

That has been a sobering discussion.

I am interested in hearing how councils measure the impact of capital projects. What criteria do you use? How do you share that—perhaps with communities, for future bids? As councils, how do you learn from the criteria that you use to judge your capital projects?

Gareth Waterson, how does Orkney Islands Council operate?

I was thinking specifically about the projects that did not succeed in the latest round, and whether you continue to work with them. However, I appreciate that we are challenged for time, so we will move on.

Diarmaid, you touched on this in your previous answer. I want to ask about the timing of the application period, which was during the election period, and the relatively tight deadline. In its evidence, Argyll and Bute Council said that, as a result, there was not full council engagement. North Ayrshire Council commented that, because of that, the engagement process was much more pressurised. I would like to hear your views on that.

You talked about the ideal situation of having a pipeline of projects. What work are you continuing to do with local authorities and communities to ensure that that pipeline is kept full?

That is helpful. I suppose that, given that life happens, you can always review what your steps and criteria are for all the left-field ones that come in.

Russell McCutcheon, do you have anything to add on how North Ayrshire operates?