‘Useful and constructive meeting’ with agriculture secretary

A delegation of farming representatives, the OIC convener and vice-convener and Liam McArthur MSP met the agriculture secretary, Richard Lochhead, in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

The meeting was to discuss concerns that as much as 25 per cent of the support coming into Orkney could be lost due to changes in CAP payment rules.

Commenting afterwards, Mr McArthur said: “During the meeting, the Orkney delegation put forward various measures that could help mitigate these impacts and it was encouraging to hear that some of these are already under consideration.”

He added: “This was a useful and constructive meeting that also touched on the critical need to support new entrants into the industry.  The agriculture secretary and his officials acknowledged the unique challenges facing Orkney and hopefully these will be taken on board ahead of final decisions being taken in the next few weeks.”