Council seeks to strengthen Scottish Crown Estate Bill

Orkney Islands Council has put forward measures to bolster the Crown Estate Bill during a key stage of its progress through the Scottish Parliament.

The Council has asked Orkney MSP Liam McArthur to lodge amendments on its behalf during a debate on the Bill later this week.

As part of the Parliamentary process, the Stage Three debate will take place on Wednesday (21 November) when MSPs have the opportunity to take forward amendments to the Bill proposed by the Council and others.

OIC Leader James Stockan said: “The purpose of these amendments is to achieve delivery of the Scottish Government’s commitments in Empowering Scotland’s Island Communities – their response to the Our Islands Our Future campaign.

“We want to see the implementation of recommendations to devolve the powers of the Crown Estate, which were made by the Smith Commission following the Independence Referendum in Scotland.

“We are seeking to ensure that maximum benefit is delivered to island communities. We have lobbied MSPs throughout the political spectrum to achieve this and we are grateful for Liam McArthur’s support.”

The amendments are intended to ensure that the right to manage any area of the sea bed out to 12 nautical miles will be transferred from Crown Estate Scotland to the relevant local authority if the local authority requests this.

The amendments also require Scottish Ministers to make regulations allowing relevant local authorities to make a request to be allowed to generate community benefit from marine developments within the seas around it.

In addition, the amendments would mean that Scottish Ministers make regulations for a scheme to provide for the transfer of 100% of net revenue from Scottish Crown Estate assets to the relevant local authority.