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First Rural Scotland In Focus Round Table Debate
Rural Scotland in Focus Report (opens in new window)
SAC hosted the first of a series of debates following the launch of Rural Scotland in Focus, earlier this year.
Jointly organised with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the debate involved some twenty people from organisations across the UK and included a delegation from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). They discussed whether, in considering regional or national development, “rural” should be singled out and, if so, in what ways.
In opening the debate, Professor Bill McKelvey welcomed participants and stressed the importance of bringing different perspectives together. Three “position statements” kick-started the session with Norman MacAskill (Head of Rural Policy, SCVO) highlighting the challenges and opportunities of rural areas and Ewan Mearns (Scottish Enterprise Strategy and Economics Directorate) questioning if it makes sense to partition rural from urban. Tony Homer (Joint Improvement Team, Scottish Government) used health policy as an example of making service delivery in rural areas more person-centred approach and so be better suited to rural Scotland.
In the wider debate that followed Betty-Ann Bryce (OECD) used international examples from Spain, Italy, Quebec (Canada) and England. She talked of how governments are having to re-evaluate their roles in developing rural communities and how much they should be “driving” and “supporting”. The meeting closed with the recognition that the differentiation is not so much about rural or urban , but place and community which is where more thought needs to be focussed.