Community Land Scotland and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar have launched a new initiative for closer joint working designed to fully harness the opportunity of community land ownership to the cause of economic progress in the Western Isles.
Over 50 representatives of community landowners and key Comhairle Councillors and Officers, and other stakeholders, met at a jointly organised conference in Stornoway to identify areas for joint work and support to deliver more economic benefits for the Islands.
David Cameron, Chair of Community Land Scotland, said, “Today is the first time community landowners have come together with the Council in such numbers to discuss how we can forge closer relationships and help deliver our shared aspirations for economic growth and community development in the Islands.
“We are delighted the Council is keen to work ever more closely with community landowners. While we each have different responsibilities, we have a shared agenda for improvement and by working ever more closely together we hope to deliver more than would otherwise be the case.
“Over coming weeks we want to build on today’s conference event by agreeing a shared agenda for practical action on better joint working. We hope the Council can help strengthen our ability to feed community landowners’ ideas into their thinking and decision making and therefore help deliver the economic development priorities we share.
“We were delighted the Council’s Convener was able to be at the event today and at the clear commitment he showed on behalf of the Council to build what we hope will be a powerful new partnership between community and Council.”