Poor Consultation on Marine Park Leaves Unanswered Questions

The consultation process on Scotland’s first Coastal and Marine National Park, which closes on 10th January, has been ‘rushed, casual and shallow’ the Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) has claimed. SCF Chairman Norman Leask said, “A couple of PR consultants appeared in places like supermarket car parks and invited people to be consulted on an apparently random basis. The ‘consultation’ consisted of a few ‘tick-the-box’ questions, and the consultants doing the job couldn’t answer any questions about what they were consulting on. The whole process has been pretty poor and would need to be improved on if there is to be meaningful discussion about this issue.”