Chamber and committees

The Scottish Governmentrecognises the importance of Harris Tweed to the economy of the Western Isles. Highlandsand Islands Enterprise (HIE) and HIE Innse Gall, have worked with the Harris Tweedindustry over a considerable period of time to support its development, and willcontinue to do so.

HIE Innse Gall areworking with self-employed weavers in a number of ways, including weaver trainingand assistance with the capital costs of buildings and equipment. HIE and HIE InnseGall are currently working in partnership with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar on opportunitiesfor expanding the market and volume production of Harris Tweed.

The Scottish curriculumis not based in statute and it is for local authorities and schools to decide howbest to deliver the curriculum in their local area.

The Site ConditionMonitoring programme undertaken by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) assesses thecondition of all sites protected under European Directives and those notified underdomestic legislation. 53% of machair features were assessed as being in favourablecondition. Of the SSSIs where arable and associated fallows form a significant contributionto the designated machair (i.e. Uists and Berneray only), 20% were in FavourableCondition and 80% in Unfavourable Condition.

SNH reports that thereasons for this vary markedly between arable and non-arable sites. For arable machairsites, the most serious issues are thought to stem from a reduction in the numberand diversity of flowering plants in the arable crop coupled with greater cultivatedpatch size. The former is believed to be linked to the use of herbicides, but otherfactors such as plough depth, the move towards higher yielding grain varieties andthe use of inorganic fertiliser may also be having an impact.

The Scotland RuralDevelopment Programme (SRDP) (which we expect to secure European Union approvallater this year) contains specific prescriptions to support the beneficial managementof machair on designated sites and in the wider countryside. The SRDP also containsfurther options for managers of machair, including the Crofting Counties Agriculturalgrant Scheme, the Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme and support to produce SpecialistPlans which could be used to encourage beneficial management of the habitat.

Scottish Natural Heritage(in partnership with RSPB Scotland) is funding preliminary work to scope the potentialfor a bid under the recently launched EC LIFE+ funding mechanism for a project toassist in planning conservation and management of machair habitats. This work isat an early stage but the outputs will form the basis against which future fundingoptions may be considered.

Section 31(2) of the Crofting Reform etc Act 2007 amended part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 to allow crofting community bodies the rightto acquire any interest in the land, thus preventing the use of interposedleases as a means of circumventing the Crofting Community Right to Buy. Thatsection came into force on 25 June 2007 and no further actionis therefore required.

The Pairc Trustmay now amend their application to buy crofting land on the Pairc Estate toinclude acquisition of the interposed lease over the estate, should they wishto do so.

This application hasnot yet been passed to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals tomake arrangements for a public local inquiry. It is not therefore possible, at thisstage, to estimate what the anticipated costs will be.

This application hasnot yet been passed to the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA)to make arrangements for a public local inquiry. Partiesto an inquiryError! Bookmark not defined. are expected to meet their owncosts. DPEA, as part of the Scottish Government, will meet the cost of the reporterallocated to hear the arguments, together with the administration costs of settingup the inquiry including the hire of the venue and newspaper advertisement of theinquiry arrangements.

Scottish PlanningPolicy (SPP) 6 Renewable Energy states that there is potential for communities to develop their own localprojects for local benefits but “community renewable schemes” is not specificallydefined. The use of the term by planning authorities is a matter for them.

The Town and CountryPlanning (Scotland) Act 1997 provides that all planning applicationshave to be determined in accord with the development plan unless material considerationsindicate otherwise. It is for the planning authority or other decision maker todecide whether a community’s views are a material consideration and if so the weightto accord them in the determination. Scottish Planning Policy - (SPP)6 Renewable Energy says that planning authorities should include in their developmentplans positive policies which support smaller scale renewables such as communityprojects, to enable communities to develop such initiatives in an environmentallyacceptable manner.

I refer the memberto the answer to question S3W-2997 on 5 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament’s website the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

LIFE+ is managed directlyby the European Commission under the terms of the EU LIFE+ Regulation. The Commissionhas recently published on its website near-final drafts of forms and guidance notesfor the use of applicants.

The Scottish Executiveis using networks of interested groups to disseminate information and promote dialogueamong likely collaborators in advance of the Commission’s formal call for bids whichis expected to be in mid-late September. Nature conservation will be an importantLIFE+ topic in Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage has agreed to take a leadingrole, including facilitating the development of a possible bid for the machair.

We are also lookingat creation of a single portal for LIFE+ applicants, supporting them from the earliestideas through to final consideration by the Commission.