Seòmar agus comataidhean

I have a question for Gemma Cruickshank and Mark Darragh. Because of the nature of their areas—obviously, Elgin is in my Highlands and Islands region—they rely heavily on tourism, or certainly it is important. We have talked about local taxation. What would be the impact on local businesses if a tourism tax was implemented in their areas? In particular, if Moray Council went ahead with a tourism tax but Aberdeenshire Council and Highland Council did not, would that put Elgin at an advantage or disadvantage?

One of the last visits that I did before the pandemic was to Linlithgow palace, and it was excellent.

There has been a huge amount of pressure. You mentioned the fact that people have not been coming to visit some of the tourism sites. There are also the general pressures on businesses. Where do you think that your town centre is at the moment as regards sustainability? How would you rate the general health of businesses? I do not want to sound negative, but what concerns do you have in that regard?

Once we have heard from Mark, I will put the same questions to Gemma.

Gemma, how is the health of businesses in Elgin? Do you have any concerns and are you doing anything to deal with those issues?

Good morning. I want to go to Phil Prentice first and then to David Grove. We have talked a lot about the changes that will happen. Obviously, there will need to be a lot of infrastructure changes. During the pandemic, we have seen issues around people and places, and potential congestion charging has been suggested. There will need to be a lot of development in our town centres, and all of that will have an impact on them and the ability of businesses to keep operating. I know that, when we had the tram debates in Edinburgh, a lot of businesses had real concerns about the on-going work causing some to go out of business.

Given that a lot of businesses are already struggling through the Covid pandemic, how can we ensure that, as we transition to a new future for our town centres, that is done in a way in which a lot of existing businesses are not lost simply because of the disruption? Is there a concern that things might get worse before they get better for some of our town centres?

It is going to be a testing period. Many thanks.

We have seen that in some places in the Highlands, with some public sector elements being moved out of town. That will obviously have an impact.

My last question is about something that came up in last week’s round-table session. There have been a number of successful business improvement district projects across Scotland—some have perhaps been less successful—but one concern that was raised was that, in communities that are not big enough to be able to form a BID, a lot falls on volunteers, many of whom are businesspeople who, as you have rightly pointed out, are very busy. They have to operate to timescales that can be difficult to work with, and they have to fill in complicated forms and so on to access public funding and support. How can we better support smaller communities that want to improve their town centres and retail offerings? How can we provide better local infrastructure if they cannot, for example, afford a development officer or someone to take on that work full time?

This has been a very interesting discussion, Professor Sparks, so thank you very much.

I am conscious of the time, but I have three questions in different areas. In my Highlands and Islands region, lots of communities are very reliant on tourism and the visiting tourist market. That is not always of great benefit or of the same benefit to local residents when it comes to the facilities that are available to them. How important is it to provide a balance between visitors to a town centre who come from far afield, local residents and residents of the commutable or easily visitable area—those who might go into a town for shopping and other facilities?

That is very interesting. Indeed, there are, as Fiona Hyslop highlighted, the cultural aspects to take into account. There might be the desire for local communities to take on an asset, but the issue is how to make that work financially in the long term.

My second question links into that. We have talked about the role of the public sector. On the more direct role of the public sector and its presence in our town centres—which might include council outreach points, the police, meeting rooms, town halls or public toilets—how important is the presence of public sector bodies and organisations within town centres in providing that base of local community visitation requirements? I am sorry if that question is slightly complicated.

Good morning to you both. I have a number of questions, all of which relate to the resignation, so I am happy to have one-word or “Can’t say” answers.

My first question is for Mr Watt. Did the chief executive’s resignation come as a surprise to you?