Alex Salmond discusses Highly Protected Marine Areas
ALBA Party Leader, Alex Salmond, was in Johnshaven yesterday to meet with a family-run shellfish merchant, Murray McBay & Co, who have been in operation for generations.
They were deeply concerned by the Scottish Governments plans to arbitrarily designate 10% of Scotland’s coastline as Highly Protected Marine Areas (HMPAs). If the Scottish Government proceed with this policy, businesses like Murray McBay & Co. the length and breadth of Scotland will struggle to survive.
You can read the ALBA Party’s submission to the Scottish Government's public consultation here.
You can watch a video of Alex explaining the issue below.
A motion on Highly Protected Marine Areas is on the agenda for our upcoming conference on May 13th. It is as follows:
HIGHLY PROTECTED MARINE AREAS
Proposer: National Executive Committee Seconded by: Dave Thomson & Hector MacLeod
This Conference believes that the Scottish Government’s current proposals for Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) are poorly researched, unsoundly based and risk the livelihood of thousands of families in fragile coastal communities.
Conference condemns
condemns the Scottish Government for promoting a policy based on an overriding 10 percent exclusion target contained in a shabby political deal between the SNP and the Green Party.
Conference demands
the withdrawal of the current proposals to be replaced by a proper consideration of the overall impact on our inshore and offshore waters of economic activity and demands an apology from the First Minister of this further example of the SNP Government turning its back on the interests of Scotland’s vital rural communities.