§ Mr. Bill Walker (Tayside, North)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the boundaries of the Highlands and Islands Development Board area to include the mountain areas of the Grampian, Central and Tayside Regions.Every school child in Scotland knows that there are three clearly defined geographical areas within mainland Scotland. They are the southern uplands, the central lowlands and the highlands. School children also know that within the highland area there are counties called the crofting counties.
Twenty years ago, Parliament, concerned that the crofting counties and the western and northern islands were suffering from rural deprivation and depopulation, acted to reverse the economic decline which had begun some 200 years earlier, with the highland clearances, which began in my constituency. The situation was made worse by the population movement of the industrial revolution and the events resulting from two world wars.
A board was established to deal with those problems. It was decided to locate it in Inverness and it was given special responsibilities for the social and economic development of the crofting counties and the islands. The board was named the Highlands and Islands Development Board.
For the first 10 years of its life, the fact that the board did not have any responsibility for almost 40 per cent. of the mountain area of the Scottish highlands did not seem to present many problems. That relatively happy situation changed, however, when Britain joined the European Economic Community, an important subject to which I shall return.
During the past 10 years there has been a substantial growth in the number of tourists visiting all of the highland area, while at the same time there has been a dramatic decline in the number of jobs on farms and on highland estates. These changes have brought into sharp focus the differences in all forms of assistance which are available to the Highlands and Islands Development Board area and which are not available to the other parts of the highlands. Yet historically, geologically, culturally and socio-economically, the parts of the highlands which are outside the board area are indivisibly highland—by land use pattern, population changes, settlement destabilisation and the uninterrupted contraction of transport, medical and education services.
Because many of the decisions affecting the type and level of assistance or aid available to the less favoured areas within the European Economic Community are now being made in Brussels, it is imperative that the area designated as the highlands of Scotland, and known in Europe as the highlands of Scotland, should be all of the highlands and not just the former crofting counties, otherwise farmers and tourist enterprises which are attempting to create a viable living in the adjoining mountain areas of Grampian, Central and Tayside regions will find themselves excluded from EEC aid which has been especially designed to meet the needs of highland Scotland.
I remind the House that Drumochter, Glen Lyon, Rannoch, Strathardle, Glen Shee, Glen Prosen, Glen 235 Clova, Glen Esk and the Cairn-o'-Mount are among the most difficult to farm in highland Scotland, yet, in the view of the EEC, they are not part of highland Scotland.
I also remind the House that the Trossachs, Loch Earn, Loch Tummel, Loch Tay, Loch Rannoch, Killin, Aberfeldy, Pitlochry, Balmoral and Braemar are considered to be among the finest of Scottish highland beauty spots, yet the EEC believes that they are outside the Scottish highlands.
We cannot blame the bureaucrats of Europe for not understanding the true situation. That is why I believe that these anomalies must be removed. Some 20 years ago, when we were not a member of the EEC, and when all the decisions affecting highland Scotland were made in this Parliament, it did not matter greatly that the boundaries of the Highlands and Islands Development Board did not embrace all of the Scottish highlands. Today I claim that it does matter. That is why I invite the House to support my Bill to alter the boundaries of the board to cover the areas in Grampian, Central and Tayside regions which by reason of their highland character, rural deprivation and remoteness can be regarded as having the same problems as the areas already covered by the board.
Question put and agreed to.
Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Bill Walker, Mr. Albert McQuarrie, Sir Hector Monro, Mr. Nicholas Fairbairn, Mr. Tom Clarke, Mr. Michael Forsyth and Mr. Malcolm Bruce.