At the 3rd Islands Forum, held in the Western Isles this week, representatives from eligible Islands across the UK – including the Isle of Wight – joined the Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove and devolved Government ministers to discuss physical and digital connectivity.
Recognising the importance of infrastructure investment and reliable services to enable islands to increase tourism, trade and support jobs, the Levelling Up Secretary proposed a new ‘task and finish’ group of representatives from UK and devolved governments and member councils, to look at island transport connections.
Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said:
“Islands have so much to offer, and through the Islands Forum the UK Government is helping them get the most out of their potential. It’s now time to make real progress on improving connectivity and that’s why we have established a new group to take this work forward.
“We need to make sure we have a long term strategy for our islands as part of our work to level up all parts of the United Kingdom.”
The forum also agreed further work will be carried out to improve digital connectivity, supporting the ongoing work by Building Digital UK in partnership with the Scottish and Welsh Governments.
UK government ministers attended alongside ministers from the devolved governments and a senior official from the Northern Ireland Civil Service, and were joined by Council leaders and representatives from various islands.
The next Islands Forum in Spring 2024 will be held in Anglesey, hosted by Ynys Môn/Isle of Anglesey County Council.
Same old same old just an excuse for another party. The only time you hear the fraze ” Integrated Transport” is in the run up to an election.In the mean time the london train misses the not so fast cat the train leave the pierhead before the cat arrives the red jet now takes 30 mins instead of 22 and the park and ride bus doesn’t connect with the not so fast jet. So enjoy your party
Perhaps the council will declare without a FOI request how much this jolly cost the tax payers of the island.
They could not run a bath between them.
A total waste of Tax Payers money