Minister for Environment, Michael Russell, has appointed journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch as chair of the Rum Task Group, which aims to identify and facilitate actions to support the aim of developing a dynamic community on the Isle of Rum. 

Russell said: “Rum is truly unique in its geology and nature conservation interest and has tremendous potential for sympathetic development.

“The Rum Task Group will focus on generating proposals for advancing community development opportunities on the island. In Lesley Riddoch, they have a chair who will be able to make things happen.

“I look forward to hearing more about their work over the coming months.”

Riddoch will be supported by Fliss Hough and Maggie Fyffe, community representatives from Rum and Eigg respectively, as members of the Task Group. Representatives from Scottish Natural Heritage, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Highland Council, Communities Scotland, Crofters Commission and Lochaber Housing Association will be involved in the Group's work.

The Task Group has been asked to report by 31 December 2008, and to provide progress reports to Russell at the end of May and end of November this year.

Riddoch is a Sony award winning broadcaster and director of Dundee based Feisty Ltd, and was a founding member of the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust. She is also a member of the Scottish Government's Prisons Commission, having been appointed by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill in October 2007.

The Rum Summit, convened by Russell last December, brought the island's community and the key Government agencies together to discuss the economic, social and environmental potential of the island with the principal objective of developing a joint approach to realising the full benefit of the Isle's resources. It agreed that a Task Group should be formed to identify and facilitate actions in support of the development of a dynamic community on Rum which is not solely dependent on SNH. The Task Group held its first meeting in Fort William yesterday.

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