£100k of Crown Estate money to “spruce up” Stornoway

​This use of the Crown Estate Coastal Communities Fund contributed to Harris councillor Grant Fulton’s decision to resign, citing frustrations over “lack of information to elected members” and “an increasingly Stornoway-centric allocation” of resources.

A Comhairle spokesman said this week that the £100,000 would “improve the general appearance of the Town Centre in light of the extra visitors/tourists which are expected to arrive due to the cruise ships”.

Mr Fulton had tabled an amendment which would have maintained ward allocations over which local councillors have discretion at the previous level instead of being cut by almost 25 per cent.

He told the Gazette this week that the ward allocations had been used to great effect in Harris in recent years to create jobs and secure matched funding for projects. The 25 per cent cut will have “a huge impact”, he warned.

Mr Fulton said “sprucing up the centre of Stornoway” was “a completely inappropriate use of a Coastal Communities Fund which should be used for the benefit of peripheral areas, fishing villages and the marine environment”.

In order to retain the ward allocation at the previous level, Mr Fulton’s amendment also deleted an item headed “pan-island competitive fund” for which £150,000 was allocated from the Crown Estate money.

As a result of Mr Fulton’s resignation, his amendment was not moved at the full Comhairle meeting though the other Harris councillor, Paul Finnegan, who had seconded it, asked for his dissent to be noted when unamended recommendations were approved without discussion.

As a result, Crown Estate funding will be used as follows: retention of evening bus services, £120,000; Creative Industries Transition, £94,000; Athletes Fund, £25,000; Stornoway Town Centre Cruise Uplift, £100,000; Museum Visitor Assistants, £20,000; Planning Support, £100,000; Whale Strandings/Ocean Debris, £25,000; Archaeology Projects, £45,000; Ward Distribution (£75,000 per ward) £825,000; Pan-Island Competitive Fund £150,000.

Previously, the level of ward distribution was £97,500 for each of the 11 wards.

The Coastal Communities Fund comes from revenues generated by Crown Estate marine leases and “there is an expectation that local authorities will use the money for coastal benefit such as support for local projects or initiatives”.

Guidance continues: “Ultimately, it will be for each coastal local authority to decide how they utilise the money as long as the use is for coastal community benefit”.

The vagueness of this definition has created contention about how the money should be used. In an island setting, everything is arguably “coastal” and the Fund has increasingly been used for general purposes, rather than specifically “coastal” ones.

Most Crown Estate marine revenue comes from fish farm leases and the case was argued when the Fund was established that it should be used mainly in peripheral areas where fish farms are located.

However, that argument was lost within Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and instead it has become a general Fund to plug gaps in council spending.