Salmond in row with Sutherland councillor over Crown cash

First Minister Alex Salmond said a Sutherland councillor should “go and do her homework” after she criticised his plan to pour millions of pounds of Crown Estate seabed lease revenues into the coffers of the islands.

The SNP leader accused Deirdre Mackay of sour grapes after she called for the same enviable package to be handed to Sutherland and Caithness.

He said: “Deirdre should know it’s not just island communities but all coastal communities around Scotland, including Sutherland and Caithness, that will get the benefit from the Crown Estate revenue. So basically my message is Deirdre should do her homework – not that Labour people usually do their homework.”

A rankled Mrs Mackay quickly responded, accusing Mr Salmond of “making up policy on the hoof”. She insisted that she scrutinised the policy document and his claim was nowhere to be found.

“What kind of reaction is that from a First Minister?” she said. “Where’s the dignity? Where’s the courtesy? I studied the document in great detail and nowhere does it say that this pledge applies to rural communities like Sutherland and Caithness.”

The Crown Estate owns £7 billion of assets on behalf of the Queen and at present its profits are paid to the Treasury.

Mr Salmond’s pre-election pledge would mean that all coastal communities in the country stand to get 100 per cent of the rent from leases for cables, pipelines, fish farms, wave, wind and tidal devices, piers, local authority harbours and moorings.

The Scottish Government draft policy document, “Empowering Scotland’s Island Communities”, came under fire from Mrs Mackay in the Northern Times last week. In an article she said Sutherland deserved the same rights as those Mr Salmond was promising to the islands.

We raised the issue with Mr Salmond when he was in Inverness on Saturday, launching the Yes campaign’s new shop at Union Street.

He said councillor Mackay should have done her research before claiming the islands were set to benefit at the expense of Sutherland.

He added: “This is what’s so depressing about that attitude. Instead of saying this is wonderful, that it’s empowerment of rural communities, she says ‘Oh dear, somebody else might be getting something that we’re no getting’. The fact that she’s wrong just makes it sadder.”

Councillor Mackay said the 84-page report on the draft policy did not mention the Crown Estate pledge being extended to the Scottish mainland.

She said: “As it stands at the moment in print in this document, this proposal applies exclusively to the islands. This underlines why you have to have clarity and a policy needs to be thought through. He’s making policy on the hoof.”

She said the Crown Estate pledge was, however, just one part of the package of goodies offered to the islands.

She added: “The Scottish Government has promised to bring forward a post-independence bill for an Islands Act to place a duty on government and public bodies to ‘island-proof’ decisions and create a Minister for Island Communities post.

“It also promised to support the establishment of Island Innovation Zones to sustain job opportunities. But none of that is being offered to Sutherland and Caithness.”

A spokesman at the First Minister’s office confirmed that the other benefits were drawn up exclusively for island communities. She said: “Highland communities already benefit from a voice in cabinet through the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs who is also working hard to improve broadband provision in rural areas, and have participated in the Rural Parliament. And all councils receive funding based on the length of their road network.

“Our Community Empowerment bill includes a number of measures that can benefit communities in Caithness and Sutherland and the Scottish Government is committed to making sure the benefits of independence are felt in all parts of the country.”

When contacted by the NT and asked to identify where in the document the Crown Estate pledge being extended to the Scottish mainland was mentioned, a Scottish Government spokeswoman referred instead to page 290 of a separate publication, “Scotland’s Future”.

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