Proposal for the Isle of Arran MPA receives strong support
The Community of Arran Seabed Trust (COAST) reports, December 2013: “COAST’s Treasurer Sibbie Sangster and Manager Andrew Binnie visited Holyrood last month to deliver hand-written Marine Protected Area responses to the Scottish Government.
Andrew said, ‘We are delighted with the response. There has been a huge turn out in favour of the Arran MPA. We received over 1200 individual and business responses in the end, well over our original target. That’s a fantastic level of support for a complicated consultation and a real testament to our volunteers and supporters.
COAST has received strong cross-party backing from local MSP Kenneth Gibson (pictured centre) and MP Katy Clark.
MSP Baroness Annabel Goldie also visited the COAST office recently and voiced her support for our work.
The Scottish Government must have MPAs in place and well managed by the end of 2016. Marine Scotland indicated that they expected designation decisions to be made in the first half of next year. That doesn’t leave them much time! With your support COAST will be keeping the pressure on the Government to ensure the Arran MPA is designated as part of a coherent Scotland-wide MPA network as soon as possible.
Source: COAST Newsletter, December 2013, see http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=5bae0f8d5eca566c99ec0f8f9&id=4eef4c4cc8&e=29fb286a7a
