 The final item of business today is the members' business debate on motion number 441 in the name of Rhoda Grant on Scottish local coastal partnerships. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put and I would be grateful if those members who wish to speak could please press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Rhoda Grant to open the debate. Seven minutes please. We are privileged here in Scotland to live in a country with magnificent and varied coastline. We have mountain sweeping down to the sea, spectacular cliffs and rocky headlines, beaches of silver and golden sand, salt marshes, estuaries and macher filled with wildlife, hundreds of harbours big and small. Our coastal waters provide a living for our inshore fishermen and for our boat operators offering marine wildlife tours to view whales, dolphins, basking sharks, sails and seabirds. There are international yachtsmen and women sailing our coast. There are weekend sailors and canoeists and cruise liners. There are lifeline ferries and cargo ships, oil industry supply vessels, tankers and indeed oil rigs themselves coming in for maintenance. We also have offshore wind turbines and soon we hope wave and tidal energy devices. All are using our ports, harbours and coastal waters. It is easy to see how our coast and inshore waters can come under pressure, how there can be conflicts of interest between users, how marine and coastal wildlife habitats could be threatened and how our beaches might be degraded. Members will be aware of the legislation and European directives that protect our marine environment. That was as a result of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit calling for better management of the world's seas and coasts, which led to the EC's fifth action plan call for integrated coastal zone management. The Scottish Wildlife Trust also held seminars back in 1992 and 1993, which encouraged the idea of wide stakeholder engagement. Projects were set up under SNH's focus on firsts initiative, which gathered and identified data on resources, uses, issues and the needs of our firsts. That will also serve as a baseline for future target setting. Without marine planning, building strong links and stakeholder networks was paramount for delivering integrated coastal zone management through discussion and conflict resolution. Integrated coastal zone management is a cyclical process that needs at least 15 years to deliver, so we are now seeing the results from early management plans. Networks have been built up by our coastal partnerships, and I welcome them to the Parliament this evening. We have got representatives from our great firsts, the Solway, the Clyde, the Forth, the Tay and the Murray Firth, as well as East Grampian coast and the Hebrides. In this debate, we celebrate the work that they do in promoting their coastal areas economically and culturally, while always seeking to protect biodiversity. Their role in encouraging schools and community groups to be aware of their coastal environment is also vitally important. The Highlands and Islands have three of those partnerships, the Clyde, the Hebrides and the Murray Firth. The Murray Firth is the largest of the Firths, stretching from Duncan's Bay Head to Fraserborough. A special area of conservation lies to the west of a line between Helmsdale and Lossymouth, and you find its seafood in the best restaurants in the Mediterranean. The Firth is also famous for its oil platform construction yards and still supplies the oil industry and maintains rigs. It has championship golf links, magnificent beaches, such as Dornoch and Nairn, countless fishing harbors, especially along the Murray and Aberdeenshire coast. It has havens for migrating birds in its home to the internationally renowned Murray Firth dolphins. According to recent research that is instigated by the Murray Firth partnership, the dolphins bring in around £5 million to the local economy and tourist revenue alone. What is the role of the Murray Firth partnership and other coastal partnerships? The Murray Firth partnership is a voluntary organisation. It promotes dialogue between competing interests so that the first natural, economic and social resources are kept in good order. Some examples of what the partnership does will help to illustrate its work. It brought the dolphin cruise boat operators together with SNH to provide accreditation for boats working in the SAC. It can access funding and, indeed, it can access some funding. It hopes to enlarge this initiative to create a wildlife smart programme together with East Grampian and TASG partnerships to promote sustainable marine wildlife watching along the east coast. Lately, the Murray Firth partnership has been promoting locally called caught fish and shell fish through the sea here project. Fishermen, fishmongers, chefs, restaurateurs and retailers have been brought together to promote local seafood, which often goes abroad. If that is successful, local fishermen have a stable local market, and local people will have the benefits of fresh local shell fish and sea fish. In the heritage field, it recently promoted the Gansi project, which gathered together examples of traditional Gansis and patterns from bygone years and promoted interest in new ways of using those patterns, which was taken up by a London fashion house. The exhibition has toured the UK and there has been interest too from across the North Sea, particularly from the Netherlands as well. Most importantly, Presiding Officer, for integrated coastal zone management, the Murray Firth partnership has recently been working on a matrix for the interaction between all users of the Firth. This has been at the behest of the Scottish Government to pave the way for marine planning partnerships. They tell me that this has been a fascinating exercise, results of which can be seen on their website. It is the kind of data that will be needed for successful marine planning that will be rolled out over the next few years. The advent of local marine planning partnership means that coastal partnerships will have an uncertain future, not knowing what role of any they will have. Coastal partnerships have done so much to promote the proper and sustainable use of our coasts. It would be a great pity for the knowledge and expertise that they have built up over many years to be lost. I would therefore urge the cabinet secretary to tell us what the Scottish Government's thinking is about their future role and how we can capitalise on their experience in the future. Many thanks. We now turn to the open debate. Speeches of Four Minutes, please. I call Check Brody to be followed by Malcolm Chisholm. First of all, I thank Rhoda Grant for bringing forward this debate this afternoon. In Scotland, the coast and seas are the sources of many of our foods, our wildlife, our energy, our minerals, our transport, our tourism and, above all, I believe, our history. It is hard to believe today, but it is 22 years since the Rio Earth Summit and 21 years since the launch of the Focus on Firths initiative. At that summit in 1972, 172 Governments participated with 116 of them sending heads of government or state, and some 2,400 representatives of non-governmental organisations were also there. The Kyoto protocol was also agreed that year following the Climate Change Convention. A lesser-known convention on biological diversity was also agreed at the Earth Summit. The convention, of course, had three main goals—conservation instead of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. Scotland's response, as I said, was the Focus on Firths initiative, which was established soon thereafter with the establishment of seven local coastal partnerships. The mainland of Scotland has 6,160 miles of coastline. When you include the aisles, that increases to some 10,250 miles, which represents 42 per cent of the circumference of the globe. Scotland, with that range, is a special place for biodiversity. In fact, as the coastal partnership website says, it is not only special for the sheer number of species, it supports but also for its complex mosaic of habitats and scenery that make up our rich and varied landscape. Approximately 90,000 species of animal plant and microbes live in Scotland, supported by many habitats and varied landscape from mountains and moorland through rivers, forests, etc. to the gateways of our coasts and seas. It is part of our lifeblood. The seven local coastal partnerships in Scotland have many projects in action at the moment, from the coastal care projects in the Hebrides to adopting a Beechden Grampian to the Firth of Clyde Forum, working on the waterfront regeneration in the Clyde and the fourth coastal litter project. The Marine Scotland Bill was introduced in the Scottish Parliament on 30 April 2009, a bill that sought to create a new legislative and management framework for the marine environment. That included a new system of marine planning, a revised system of licensing marine activities and powers to establish marine protected areas. Marine Scotland, the body, was created ahead of the introduction of the bill as a directorate of the Scottish Government and helped to deliver many of the provisions in the bill. As of 24 July this year, 30 marine protection areas have been designated under the Marine Scotland Act. Those will be incorporated into the national marine plan and represented in the national marine plan interactive alongside existing protective areas. Presiding Officer, Scotland is a rich and diverse country and we have come a long way in the 21 years since the focus on the first initiative was launched. Our coastline will never fail to amaze, never cease to attract tourists and visitors to our shores and never fail to inspire all generations of Scots. Let me close on a quote from the famous Scottish conservationist John Muir. He said, everybody needs beauty as well as bread. Places to play in, places to pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike. Scotland's coastline is that beauty. Let's ensure that we continue to protect Muir's legacy. Scotland has seven local coastal partnerships. Much as I love the northern coast that Rhoda Grant was speaking of, I shall understandably concentrate on the fourth estuary forum, which is the local coastal partnership, which covers the coastal area of my constituency as well as much else. The fourth estuary forum takes in a diverse waterway that combines a European birds directive designated special protection area and special areas of conservation for grey seals with a busy commercial shipping area with exports of oil and gas and imports of goods from all over the world to the stretch of water that must maintain a delicate balance between the protection of our natural ecosystems and the commercial industrial needs of the surrounding ports and towns. Membership of the fourth estuary forum is open to all who have an interest in preserving this great natural resource for future generations. They do that by including future generations through projects like Friends of the Fourth that get young people in schools and clubs out into the natural environment. The Friends of the Fourth project follows on from the very successful coastal litter campaign, which ran from 2001 to 2004 in order to raise awareness of marine litter and set up beach cleans to reduce debris. Set up in 2005, they raise awareness and gather information on issues including marine litter, climate change and biodiversity. They supply teachers who may wish to include lessons on beach littering and the impact that it has through useful educational packs. That offers a curriculum-based package giving practical advice on projects that are rewarding and fun. With the help of Friends of the Earth, a regular group is now running at Seafield near Kirkcaldy to clean up the beach there, so that is one important aspect of the fourth estuary forum. One of the themes of the fourth integrated management strategy, moving on to another topic, was to promote access to and enjoyment of the fourth. In 2002, the fourth estuary forum set up a project to look at strategic planning of fourth-wide access for walking, cycling and riding. All seven local authorities, Scottish National Heritage and Pass for All partnership, were involved. The forum commissioned a major feasibility study to look at scoping, demand analysis, marketing and funding of around the fourth route. The study was completed in 2004 and has provided the framework for local authorities and other such as Sustrans to develop routes for access around the fourth. As a result of that, Sustrans has developed the round the fourth cycle route as part of the national cycle network and fourth estuary forum regularly attends the round fourth group to help to promote access to members and the wider community. In doing so, they not only broaden enjoyment of the natural environment but also improve it by supporting active travel and perhaps reducing some of the heavy traffic that can damage coastal ecosystems. The forum has also been proactive in seeking ways to adapt the coastline and protect ecosystems from increasing occurrences of flooding. Their past investigations ran into natural defences, including a 1999 project, co-ordinating with GOIs and Glasgow University to look at potential options for managed realignment along the fourth. After considering the feasibility of various sites, it was concluded that there could be some local protection achieved but flood risk for the wider estuary would not be lessened. There were some valuable discoveries made in the course of the study, however. It was found, for example, that salt marsh and habitat creation could be created by using this technique. Finally, the motion gives me a chance to praise the work of the Water of Leith Conservation Trust, one of the member organisations in the fourth estuary forum. The Water of Leith Conservation Trust was established in 1988 by residents concerned about the river and its future. From small beginnings, this voluntary organisation grew and, in 1997, the trust was successful in obtaining funding, with match funding principally from the City of Edinburgh Council and LEAL, for a £5 million capital project to complete the Water of Leith walkway and renovate the Slateford schoolhouse into the Water of Leith visitor centre. I and many others, of course, am now very delighted to use this walkway on my bike and in walking. I hope that that is also the case for the coastline around the fourth estuary and throughout Scotland. I look forward to further developments along the coastline of my constituency in the coming months and years. I, too, congratulate Rhoda Grant on securing this debate. Like Rhoda, I welcome the opportunity to pay tribute to the good work of local coastal partnerships in my highlands and islands region, such as the Murray Firth Partnership and Coast Hebrides, the Outer Hebrides Coastal Marine Partnership and, indeed, many others across Scotland. There are many positive examples of the different types of work being undertaken by local coastal partnerships. The Murray Firth Partnership runs a dolphin space programme, an accreditation scheme for wildlife tour boat operators, which is an innovative co-operative approach to sustainable wildlife tourism. It's Seafood Sea Here project aims to make local seafood more easily available and increase the amount and quality of seafood offered in local restaurants and shops. On that point, I simply must mention the town of Oben in Argyll and Bute, which now has some of the best shellfish outlets in Europe, unmatched for quality of produce, and I think also excellent for their service as well. I will never make any apology for advertising Scotland's shellfish. Lobsters, crabs, scallops, prawns, they are the best in the world. Coast Hebrides Coastal Care programme aims to restore and protect dunes and soft coasts by undertaking a range of beach and dune management. Restoration and flood protection also has initiatives there. Maramgrass has been transplanted to stabilise blowouts in some of the dunes, and this is vital work as coastal erosion is a real threat to communities in the Western Isles, for example. The motion refers to bringing stakeholders together and broken agreements between different sectoral interests, and that is very important. In preparing for this member's debate, I consulted with representatives of the Clyde Fishermen's Association and it was most encouraging to learn that they felt that their participation in the first of Clyde forum for many years now has been very worthwhile, with the group acting in collaboration and co-operation seeking constructive solutions for the concepts that it supports. They suggested that, unlike some other initiatives, the forum understands intuitively that there needs to be recognition of existing socio-economic patterns which should not be disrupted unless by way of an improvement. As we look to improve the biodiversity and health of our coastal environment, we need to take with us the fishermen and others who currently make their living from our seas and coastline. In many cases, they are the ones with a specific practical understanding, expertise and knowledge about our coastal waters that can help to inform the plans to ensure the sustainability that all of us would like to see. This is a point that I have made repeatedly in this chamber, not least in the debate that we had in March this year on bringing the Clyde up to good environmental status by 2020. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I say that I am running out of time, the Scottish Conservatives recognise the importance of our coastlines in terms of our economy and our biodiversity. We are aware of the positive achievements of Scotland's local coastal partnerships and we hope that the best practice, experience and expertise that has been built up over the last 20 years or more can be maintained and developed as the new regional marine planning partnerships are introduced. Thank you very much Presiding Officer and I do want to congratulate Ryder for a grant that is for bringing this evening's debate. It's amazing what one discovers when one is faced with something that I knew nothing about and I wondered why I knew nothing about it, but this is what happens. I went and explored and found that East Grampian has a coastal partnership about, which I will tell you a little, and if you go to the south end of my constituency you'd then find that there was a Tayus Turi forum. Mercifully, the division between them is precisely where Angus meets Aberdeenshire, which I'm sure makes life a lot simpler for both. I looked at the partners and I'll start with East Grampian coastal partnership, which was the local councils, the port and harbour authorities, Marine Scotland, Aberdeen University and others, and I thought, well, here's a group of people who clearly have a vested interest in the area, but it must be active partners because I know they've got only one part-time employee and I think he will be hard put to achieve a great deal unless those partners do get involved. The objectives are to support and promote sustainable development, but, and I quote this one specifically, to seek to protect, conserve, enhance and promote the natural and cultural heritage of the East Grampian coast and then to engage stakeholders and everybody else who, of course, who's interested. It seems to me that's a very commendable thing to do, an open-ended thing to do, but something which I wish them well in and clearly will help with them in the future. Given that I'm going to be followed by Dr Elaine Murray, I think we're going to go around the whole of Scotland, Presiding Officer. I would like to give you just a brief tour of the east coast, at least as far as I have it, which starts with Stonehaven in the north, which has not only the harbour and the museum, but, of course, the Hogmany fireball ceremony, which must be absolutely unique and will not be happening anywhere else if only for health and safety reasons. You would take no distance at all to get to Donato Castle, a brief walk to Fowlsea and Nature reserve run by the RSPB, where you not just find birds but butterflies and clifftop flowers. It's still walkable to Inverburby. At that point, you can pick up on a railway track, which I was walking down with my wife only over the weekend. It gets you down to Gerddon, Johnshaven and, with a bit of climbing, probably to St Cyrus, the wonderful beach down there. There are fish festivals, there are fish and chip shops, there are plenty of tea houses and really good exercise to be had, and it's just a wonderful environment, isn't it? Others have mentioned litter. It is a problem on its own, which we have to address in both directions, Presiding Officer, because, as I stood on since our speech on Sunday afternoon, I was looking at bottles that hadn't come in on the tide—they hadn't—but I was also looking at huge hay bales that must have done, because they couldn't have got there any other way. We were scratching our heads as to where they'd come from, but clearly litter comes in both directions. I'm looking forward to the marine spatial planning, which I know is going to be announced very soon. I look forward to the Cabinet Secretary's announcement, I suspect, within very few days. I also welcome our increasing interest in what we do on the foreshore, increasing concerns about planning. I wonder, actually, whether the old course at St Andrews would ever be built if somebody wanted to do it now. Wouldn't it be a special scientific interest place that nobody would ever be allowed to put a golf course onto? I thought I'll leave you with. It all needs to be looked after. Clearly, institutionally, these coastal partnerships are doing their bit, and as I say, I look forward to the draft marine plan to be laid within the next few days. We, as individuals, clearly have to do our bit. We have to make sure that we don't drop the litter. We certainly have the opportunity to go down there and enjoy our countryside, and I really just encourage everybody to do so. If I have the moment, Presiding Officer, I can just make the point that I have back on Chisholm's comments about the water of Leith. I have walked it. Comments about Oban—I have been there, and I've walked most of my own coastline and probably most of the others that other people are going to mention. It's a fabulous opportunity. I guess what does worry is that we don't meet very many people out there, and we really need to broadcast that rather more. Many thanks. Finally, before I call the minister, Elaine Murray. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, would like to congratulate Rhoda Grant on securing this debate on local coastal partnerships. There are over 50 partnerships across the United Kingdom, which make a vital contribution to the management and integration of activities on the coast. However, like Mugham Chisholm and Nigel Don, I intend to concentrate on my own local coastal partnership, which of course is a Solway Firth partnership, turned 20 years old in June, and it was inaugurated by Magnus Magnuson with the initial aim of developing a cross-border marine and coastal strategy, and it became a limited company with charitable status in 2003. The partnership continues to work on both sides of the Solway and therefore has the challenge of operating in two different regulatory and policy frameworks, but rises to that challenge and makes an important contribution to supporting both the local economy and the local environment. Membership is open to all who are interested in coastal issues, whether organisations or individuals. Over the years, it has played many important roles, helping with the recovery from the effects of Footh and Mouth in 2001 in Dumfries and Galloway and Cumbria, co-ordinating Solway fish to the organisation, not the species, establishing the Solway aquatic litter task, or SALT, developing the Solway biosecurity plan and taking action on non-native invasive species, including publishing an identification guide. The partnership has worked with both the UK and the Scottish Governments during the development of marine planning legislation through our Marine Scotland Act and the UK's equivalent, the Marine and Coastal Access Act. It is involved with the North West Insure Fisheries and Conservation Authority in England and the South West Insure Fisheries Group in the Scottish part of the Solway Firth. It has run several successful projects such as Making the Most of the Coast, which was a two-year project completed in the summer. Over this period, it involved over 2,500 people, engaged in 28 education providers from nursery schools to research establishments, worked with over 30 groups and featured in 33 publications. Primary school children were involved in filming a documentary about the sea show. Three awareness-raising films for young people were produced on coastal issues, including risks to coastal heritage, monitoring climate change and marine litter, along with four short films featuring the variety and beauty of the Dumfries and Galloway coast. The Solway Firth partnership has also been involved in co-ordinating work, aiming to reopen the important Solway cockle fishery. The management of this intertidal fishery has been very problematic to say the least over the years. Cockles are economically valuable, but they are also a food source for waders such as Oystercatcher and not that clearly there is a balance between economic and environmental considerations. The partnership has worked with Marine Scotland on developing a sustainable management model, and although their local contractor, which has been taking part in the scientific study with Drew in August, I understand that the Government believes that sufficient information has been gathered to enable the fishery to reopen in September next year. The partnership produces a bi-annual newsletter containing information about a range of coastal issues. November's edition includes an article for example on smuggling on the Solway in the 18th century, an activity that benefits not only from the differences in customs and excise in Scotland and England, but also from the proximity of the Isle of Man, whose rulers imported large quantities of luxury goods, repackaged them and sold them on to the Solway smugglers. People may know that one of the most famous excise men was Robert Burns, indeed, who caught a smuggler at Annan, which prompted him to write The Deals of War with the excise man, which suggests that he was somewhat more sympathetic towards the smuggler than the excise man should have been. When I get back to the Solway fish partnership, first partnership, it also works with local people to promote sustainable enjoyment of the coast through activities such as sea angling, sailing, kayaking, diving, wildlife watching and coastal walking. The inner Solway furth is designated as both a special protection area under the birds directive and a special area of conservation or a natura site. The estuary is an important wetland for overwintering birds such as fellbird, barnacle geese and hoop response and is the most northerly habitat for the rare nathrotac toad for which I am a species champion in Parliament. The role of the Solway furth partnership has been and will continue to be essential to the sustainable development, management and promotion of the Solway. I am grateful to Rhoda Grant for the opportunity to thank members of the partnership for their vital contribution to our region. Many thanks. I now invite Richard Lochhead to respond to the debate. Cabinet secretary, around seven minutes please. Thank you and can I begin by congratulating Rhoda Grant on bringing forward this motion to recognise the important role played by our coastal partnerships over many years. It is quite appropriate to be able to speak in this debate after closing an opening of debate on sea fisheries just beforehand, which was quite relevant to many of the contributions from members. I enjoyed Rhoda Grant's economic, social and cultural tour of Scotland's coasts, particularly the Moray furth, which I have the privilege of representing part of in this Parliament. I certainly identified with many of the attributes that many members mentioned in relation to the Moray furth, which is a stunning area of Scotland. I just want to echo the comments of others in acknowledging the contribution of those partnerships to the management of our coasts and their seas. Of course, that is a contribution that has helped to shape and influence national policy in this country. Many of the partnerships in the bodies that they represent were directly involved in the wide-ranging discussions that took place and which led to the Marine Scotland Act 2010. Again, some members referred to that, and that legislation is all about protecting many of the features that Rhoda Grant and others mentioned in her speeches. Those partnerships remain important to the on-going implementation of Scotland's marine legislation. The motion highlights the partnership's role in the development of marine planning and the work that it has done to pilot marine regional planning, which has been taking forward now. It is certainly the case that it has helped to pave the way for our new marine planning framework. The debate is timely, as not only are we celebrating the 21st anniversary of the emergence of the local coastal partnerships, but also because the national marine plan will be laid before Parliament later this week. That will be Scotland's first statutory marine plan and will set the framework for sustainable development of our seas. Marine planning seeks to manage the impact of human activity on the marine environment but also recognises and encourages the growth of all the industries that have been mentioned by many members that need and use our waters, such as fishing that has been mentioned by many members, such as oil and gas and renewables and marine tourism and so on. It also gives further weight to the designated marine protected areas and preferred locations for the development of offshore wind and marine renewables. It is right that we take this approach. Our seas, as has been said by many people, are a vast resource for a stunning environment, essential for our climate and our lifestyles, capable of providing food, energy and, of course, enjoyed by tourists more and more, and recreational users alike. Scottish Seas, which we are blessed with, are among the most diverse in the whole of the world, home to many distinctive habitats and iconic species, such as the basking sharks and over 20 species of marine mammals and internationally important bird populations. I thank the cabinet secretary for taking intervention. He has made a lot of Scotland becoming a food and drink nation. Would he agree with me that advertising our quality products from those areas that you are talking about is one of the best ways of doing it? I certainly agree with that. I mentioned in the previous debate how I was in Orkney last week meeting food and drink businesses. Clearly, the nature of Orkney very much defines the image that has helped to sell food and drink from the islands. That is certainly in other parts of Scotland as well. I hope that next year, the year of food and drink 2015, our coastal partnerships and everyone who has an interest in promoting the image of the fantastic natural environment that we have, that spawns of food and drink will find ways of promoting their local produce throughout that important year. It is important that we manage all those resources because they will continue to support our image for food and drink and all the various species that I have mentioned and all the other benefits that we want to be there, not just for generations to come. The national marine plan is going to help us to do that. We have worked hard to develop this over a number of years since the act came into force. That reflects the processes that were necessary to arrive at a plan that achieves a fair and appropriate balance between the economic, environmental and social interests that many members have referred to. First and foremost, it is based on the evidence in Scotland's marine atlas, much of which is available online. If you have not seen it, please consult it. It is online through a system called national marine plan interactive. I encourage schools, MSPs and coastal partnerships to use that system and look at the marine atlas. The marine plan was drawn up after heavy consultation. Marine Scotland hosted over 30 consultation events around Scotland last autumn to take views from local communities. We have worked closely with a range of stakeholders, including the Scottish Coastal Forum, representing the local coastal partnerships and the Marine Strategy Forum. Of course, that engagement with the local stakeholders and the understanding of the local marine environment was a mainstay of coastal partnerships activity throughout their whole existence. The partnerships have provided a forum for local stakeholders to come together and connect directly to the community on issues that affect those communities. Their activities range from the practical, like organising the beach cleans. Again, I have attended some of them in my constituency and other members referred to them, or other activities such as providing wildlife watching guides, SPABA in my constituency, and again other members have mentioned some of those activities in their local areas. Some of those local initiatives, but as well as that, the strategic initiatives, such as developing the sector interactions with each other and addressing some of the issues of conflict between different sectors and different parts of Scotland at the same time. However, the key characteristic of the partnerships has been their ability to bring together a range of interests to consider those common issues and try to find solutions to local issues. Thank you for taking the intervention. I wonder how he envisages the partnerships going forward with the new marine planning set-up that is going to happen. Will they be involved in that? What will their role be? Many of the organisations that are part of the coastal partnerships are also going to be involved in marine planning in different parts of Scotland, the marine regions. As we evolve the marine regions, because clearly we are at a very early stage in the coming years, we will see the evolution of local planning for our seas and the marine regions. We should, as the member suggests, look at ways in which the coastal partnerships have a role to play in that. However, I do not think that it is for ministers to sit in offices and come up with ideas necessarily of how coastal partnerships can play a greater role. I think that we want to ask the coastal partnerships themselves of what role they feel they can play and what support they require from the Government to play that role in the future. I very much encourage that bottom-up approach, because that is the value of the partnerships around Scotland's coasts. There is a lot happening at the moment. Clearly, I expect and hope that local coastal partnerships will continue to champion their members and all the marine industries that they are involved in in their local patches. I want them to do what they can to raise awareness of all the issues that people have been speaking about—the riches of our coastal communities. If there is anything that the Government can do to help that, we are certainly open-minded. However, there are many fine examples around the country of that happening, whether it be the Murray-Forth partnership, working with her neighbours in the East Grampian coastal partnership to raise awareness for the demand for local seafood. Of course, there are plans to develop an East Scotland seafood trail in 2015, which is timely, because that is a year of food and drink. There are many different examples around the country of that co-operation happening, and I really want to continue to encourage that. I believe that the Government's plan to establish marine planning partnerships at a regional level will ensure that the work of the local coastal partnerships is continued and developed. We are working closely with the First of Clyde Forum and Shetland to establish formal marine planning partnerships in those regions, which I referred to earlier, and the experience of the local coastal partnerships, their engagement with local communities, the issues to tackle and the ways of working provide many learning points for the development of the regional marine planning that is going to be taking forward in the coming years. I could talk for a while about many other initiatives that are happening around Scotland involving the partnerships. I do not want to do that. I just want to close by commending the work of our local coastal partnerships. I wish them well for tonight's reception. If I can pop along, I will certainly do that. I look forward to ensuring their commitment to managing our coasts and seas as reflected in our new marine planning regime, and let us continue to celebrate Scotland's coasts and the role that our coastal partnerships play in doing that. Many thanks, cabinet secretary. That concludes your degrants debate on Scottish local coastal partnerships. I now close this meeting of Parliament.