Chamber and committees

I invite Paul Bradley to respond to that question, and we will continue exploring the theme. Elena Whitham also has a couple of questions, so she can come in after Paul.

Thank you. I invite Kim Fellows to go next.

Yes—thank you, Ailsa. You are getting me excited about methodology, too.

I have a supplementary question. Your work was carried out primarily before Covid. Although I do not know the specific numbers, now that we can work remotely, we have had the news that a lot of people are choosing to move to the Highlands. Should we be aware that populations will change?

We move on to our final theme, which is council demographics.

Does Meghan Gallacher want to follow up on that?

I would like to explore the concerns that were raised by Margaret Davidson of Highland Council about the Aird and Loch Ness ward, which is to be split. Highland Council’s view is that the areas around Loch Ness form a community because of their connection to that place, and that the proposal to split the ward would be disruptive.

That brings us to the end of our questions. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Although the conversation was a bit tricky in the virtual space, we managed it pretty well and it has been helpful. We really appreciate your contributions, which will help us to go forward with our work.

Under the next agenda item, the committee has the opportunity to take further evidence to inform its consideration of the regulations that give effect to Boundaries Scotland’s recommendations relating to six local authority areas. This week, the committee will hear from Boundaries Scotland on its recommendations. I warmly welcome, from Boundaries Scotland, Ronnie Hinds, who is the chair; Ailsa Henderson, who is the deputy chair; and Colin Wilson, who is the review manager for the Scottish boundary commissions secretariat.

I acknowledge Boundaries Scotland’s good work in making its recommendations. It was good to read about it and to see the criteria that were used. I am very aware that Boundaries Scotland is a fairly small unit of people, so you did a good job. You had to work with the criteria, and that has led to different responses, depending on the local authority that we have talked to. We will get into that this morning.

I invite Elena Witham to ask the first questions.

We are discussing a very important topic, on which a few others want to come in. We will go to Kim Fellows first.

We will have to go over our time a little bit. I know that we have one more theme to explore, but I want to indulge myself with a supplementary on the climate emergency issue.

The committee has been talking about how we might work with other committees, and I have started a conversation about agricultural support payments, which will have to be reviewed at some point. In a conversation with me, someone pointed out that local government could play a role in that respect. What if we directed 5 per cent of the agricultural support payment budget towards local government to fund, say, farmers markets or even glasshouses where we could start growing things locally on quite a large scale? I am curious to hear what Paul O’Brien has to say about that, and it would be great if perhaps one other witness could offer another view or say something in support. What do you think of the idea of agricultural support payments going to local government?