Councillor Alan Torrance Tain and Easter Ross Contact Details: alan.torrance.cllr@highland.gov.uk Tel: (01862) 893658 / (01862) 892931 Alan is glad to help wherever he can with any issues that you might be concerned about in Tain and Easter Ross

Recession hits Tain Mussels 24/09/09

For almost a millennium profits from the sale of mussel fishing in the Dornoch Firth have by Royal Charter, been the property of the people of Tain.

In 1066 Scots King Malcolm Canmore first set up this asset for Tain, and it was subsequently ratified by King James IV by Royal Charter in the fourteen hundreds.

Since then regular payments have been made to Tain Common Good Fund, now operated by the Highland Council, with the wild mussel beds fished and looked after by Highland Fresh Mussels, an arms-length company of the Council.

Over recent years around £60,000 has been contributed to the fund annually and used to support and enhance the town and its various organisations.

At the Planning Meeting of the Highland Council on Wednesday, the company’s annual accounts were presented to the Committee, with a report stating that contributions made to the Fund, are expected to be well down from recent years, mainly due to the recent recession and its effect on demands from the home market and Europe.

SNP Councillor for Tain and Easter Ross, Alan Torrance, who sits on the Board of HFM, suggested that industries such as this should be given as much assistance as possible from Westminster to enable them to weather the storm.

He cited the recently introduced legislation in France where VAT on restaurants has been reduced from 19% to 5% to encourage not only the shellfish industry, but restaurants, their suppliers and customers.

Cllr Torrance stated “the knock-on effects of this reduction is huge, and not only reduces customers bills, but keeps restaurants in business, attracts tourist customer, and sustains and improves not only shellfish supplies, but the farming industry who supply beef, port, lamb, vegetables and a host of other ingredients for our consumption.

He feels that the 2 ½ % reduction in VAT introduced by the Government, which is about to go back and is so small that it had no effect on sales, and the significant reduction bravely put forward in France, should be followed by the UK.  He commented “perhaps the UK government isn’t exciting enough to have the courage to come up with such an innovative scheme.”