Did you know that Highlands and Islands Enterprise had an aspiration to grow the population across their whole admin area - Argyll and the Islands, Eilean Siar, Highland, Moray. Orkney and Shetland to 500,000 by 2025.
They now think it is possible to achieve this number in 20 years or so (stated in their consultation response to the National Planning Framework in 2008 and in their latest operating plan in 2009)
The whole A96 Corridor strategy seems to be based on 'floating' numbers.
And don't get me started on the Government's Economic Stategy targets for population to match average European (EU-15) population growth over the period 2007 to 2017, supported
by increased healthy life expectancy in Scotland over this period.
Check out page 6 of
http://www.hie.co.uk/2009/operating%20plan%202009-12.pdf
Please do not hesitate to contact the apt.intouch@live.co.uk if you feel the desperate urge to discuss matters of population
In the referenced document HIE state the following:
ReplyDelete"...we need to encourage population growth in every part of the region" and "We will need to sustain the demographic trends of the last few years over a long period and redouble our efforts to stem population loss from the more fragile areas."
Surely the proposed building of new towns at Tornagrain, etc. will have the opposite effect? Will not these centres of population draw folk to them from the “more fragile areas” that HIE seek to protect and hence accelerate the decline of those areas? In addition, how will these new settlements “encourage population growth in every part of the region”? Assuming the need exists for new towns (and this is not yet proven, since the numbers of new homes appear to be based on “aspirational” figures and not on statistics derived from projected growth as determined by the GROS) it is not evident how new conurbations centred around the A96 Corridor will stimulate growth in any area other than adjacent to Inverness and Nairn – this initiative will not benefit the outlying settlements.
The statement regarding “sustaining the demographic trends of the last few years over a long period” must also be challenged. The HIE document contains a reference to “realistic aspirations” of achieving an annual population growth rate of 0.7% over the years 2008 to 2017. In fact, this growth rate is more than double the growth rate for the area which has been just 0.3% over the last ten years. Therefore, it is not a question of “sustaining the demographic trends” in order to grow the population but facilitating a percentage increase over and above that which has been seen during the recent past. It is also worth remembering that the past ten years have seen the establishment of Lifescan in the Inverness area. Lifescan is one of the largest private employers in the Highlands and the area would be fortunate to attract another employer of comparable size. It is therefore worthwhile to consider where the employment opportunities will arise to justify the number and size of the proposed settlements.