Bad weather halts Swinney’s trip to Shetland for £5m islands funding deal

The First Minister has been forced to abandon the formal announcement of a £5 million funding package for the Scottish islands due to bad weather.

John Swinney was due to make the announcement during a visit to Shetland on Friday but had to cancel because his scheduled flight could not land in cloudy conditions.

In a statement earlier this week, it was confirmed £1 million will go towards a new scheme to support the islands’ net zero 2040 goal, while a further £1 million will be invested in an Island Cost Emergency Fund to tackle poverty across Scotland’s six island local authorities.

The remaining £3 million will support locally designed island infrastructure projects, which was going to be announced during the visit to Cope Shetland – the island’s leading centre for community reuse and recycling.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said on Friday: “Due to the weather in Shetland, the plane carrying the First Minister was unable to land. He looks forward to visiting Shetland in the near future.”

Ahead of the planned announcement, Mr Swinney had said: “I have made it clear that I will be First Minister for everyone in Scotland – including our island communities who face a number of unique challenges but have enormous potential.

“Islanders have been clear that more needs to be done to help them fulfil their ambitions and that is why we are developing a new national islands plan, to be published next year.

“We will listen to island communities and speak with local authorities to ensure the new plan meets their needs.

“In the meantime we will continue to invest in our islands programme, which over the last three financial years has distributed over £12 million to support 61 projects on 50 islands.”