Orkney councillor Steve Sankey, who made history as the first Scottish Green councillor to be elected to the isles’ council, has reflected on his time in the job.
Mr Sankey was elected to represent the county’s East Mainland, South Ronaldsay, and Burray at the last election in 2017.
He has sat in a crowd of independent councillors for the last five years. The exceptions being Kirkwall councillor John Ross Scott, who joined the greens in March last year, and the two-councillor Orkney Manifesto Group.
He was asked if he felt his association with a party made his experience as a councillor different to his colleagues’.
He said: “One of my strongly held convictions is that with an independent councillor you don’t really know what you’re getting. They approach issues on a pragmatic basis.
“With the Orkney Greens, we’re really careful to publish a manifesto before we stand.
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“If you stand as a green councillor people will know you stand for pushing the climate change agenda onwards, working more quickly to net-zero, and all the things you would associate with green-ness.
“There’s that level of accountability, transparency and openness that you don’t really get with anybody else. However, to be fair, one or two of the councillors do manifestos, as do the Orkney Manifesto Group.”
He describes standing down as “a very difficult decision” that he has become comfortable with. While there are a few reasons why, he said, mainly, it’s time to retire.
As he’d be in his early 70s by the end of the next council term, and he runs both a wildlife tour business and a small farm, it was time to stand down. He added that he feels there should be more young people and females in the council.
This is far from the end of the story for the Green party in Orkney’s council chamber.
Councillor Scott is running again and Mr Sankey revealed that the party plans to field five candidates at May’s elections.
He will also stay on as co-convener of the Orkney Green Party.
While John Ross Scott, Eric Page and Helen Woodsford-Dean have all announced their candidacy, the remaining two names have not been announced by the Orkney Greens yet.
Term saw victories but disappointments too
Mr Sankey first decided to become more politically active after finding himself butting heads with the council over a decision to relax ballast water conditions for visiting vessels in Scapa Flow.
Also being chairman of a local primary school’s parent council at the time, he wanted to be in a position to have more impact on how things were being done.
Asked about successes during his term, he pointed to three examples.
The first was managing to secure an extra £5.5million in funding for Orkney’s ferries. This came as part of the Scottish Greens’ annual negotiations with the SNP government in 2018.
Second was stopping the recycling centre in St Margaret’s Hope from being shut down, not once but twice. This was with the help of 500 local signatures.
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Third was getting the council’s investment committee and pension fund to adopt the United Nations’ principles of responsible investment.
However, asked if there are any disappointments, he had a clear answer.
“The pace of the progress with the barriers is glacial,” Mr Sankey added.
“An immediate improvement to safety on barrier number two was approved two years ago. Nothing has been done yet.
“The barriers are 75 years old now, they’re approaching their centenary and they’re crumbling before us.”
The barriers were built during World War II, to block the eastern approaches to Scapa Flow.
Churchill barriers are ‘crumbling before us’
He said there are two reasons why nothing is happening with the barriers – they will cost tens of millions of pounds to fix and none of the other councillors live across them.
As he lives in South Ronaldsay, he’s well aware of the issues and they will continue to be part of his life after he leaves his council seat.
He concluded: “They’re a major artery for incoming trade and tourists now.
“We’ve got to look after those barriers. That’s been my biggest disappointment.”