Councillor demands Shetland Islands get more power

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Councillor Malcolm Bell spoke with Express.co.uk and explained many local leaders in the Shetland Islands were getting fed up with the centralisation of powers in Holyrood which has been slowly occurring over the past few decades. He stressed while most of the Shetland Islands were non-partisan, he dismissed calls for Scottish independence as he believed it would make very little difference to his campaign. Mr Bell added it could be likey to see more powers become centralised if Scottish independence was granted and explained Scotland currently has the authority to grant Shetland the controls they are desperately after.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, Mr Bell delivered an update on Shetland Island “independence” following their council’s decision to explore options in November of 2020. 

While the Shetland Movement has been operating since 1978 which has sought to increase autonomy on the islands, only recently have councillors decided to explore ways to remove their reliance on Holyrood. 

Mr Bell explained a large majority of politicians on the islands were not tied to political parties and said the issue with Scotland control is to do with its structure – not necessarily who is in power. 

But the councillor was asked whether the SNP’s drive for independence would have any effect on Shetland Island autonomy with Mr Bell dismissing the argument. 

He explained: “Scotland currently has the power to allow councils, like Shetland, more autonomy, it makes no real difference on whether they are independent or not. 

“They have the power and they ought to be using that power to push decision making out from the centre.

“And indeed become more like councils across Europe.

“Scotland has incredibly big councils when compared to places in Europe and we need to become more European in terms of local government. 

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“The Scottish Government could be doing that now but they are continuing a process of decision making into the centre.

“And this is not something which has been going on over the past ten years, this has been going on for the last few decades and accelerated since 1990s.”

Mr Bell admitted the calls for “independence” are not as dramatic as many may believe as he rejects the term “independence” and is more focused on education, public transport and other powers. 

The Shetland politician also confessed it was probably the right thing for Holyrood to centralise powers in times of crisis like with the pandemic but local powers should be given out to allow better governance on smaller authorities. 

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He told Express.co.uk the issue of Shetland Island oil has also not been considered as the main political drive is to secure greater powers for Shetland first.

In November, Mr Bell led a vote to explore more forms of local control with councillors voting 18-2 in favour. 

Mr Bell explained since the vote, different options have been explored such as becoming a crown dependency and mimicking some federal governments of Europe – like Germany. 

At the time, he said: “The threat to local government is not exclusive to Shetland.

“However, our geography, our size and the existing make-up of our public services means we have a real opportunity, if we want it, to return democratic accountability and meaningful choice to our community.

“However, during the recent event we heard, repeatedly, that self-determination is neither radical nor exceptional but is completely normal almost anywhere else.”

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