Current Petitions

Petition PE497 is from James and Pamala McDougall and has 850 signatures. It calls on the Parliament to urge the Executive, following its consultation exercise in 2000, to implement legislation at the earliest opportunity to alleviate the nuisance caused by hedges.The Executive's response makes it clear that no legislative priority has been attached to the matter and that it had intended to use a member's bill introduced by Scott Barrie as a means of changing the legislation. It is unlikely that the bill will be implemented before the end of March when the Parliament is dissolved, but the Executive seems to be willing for Scott Barrie's legislation to be revived on the other side of the election.It is suggested that we have two options. We could agree that, in confirming its commitment to supporting legislation on the issue, the Executive's response is reasonable and therefore we should take no further action. Alternatively, we could agree to keep the petition open to monitor the situation in the new session with regard to the progress of legislative proposals. If we keep the petition open, we could return to the matter if nothing happens on the issue after the start of the new parliamentary session.

I believe that, in its response, the Executive said that it did not think that it would be appropriate to use the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill for that purpose. In any case, if we keep the petition open and nothing happens in the next session, we can ensure that something is done. Are we all agreed to do that?Members indicated agreement.