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Summer Cabinets
23/07/2010
The Scottish Cabinet will gather in Dornoch on Monday for their historic first meeting in the town, and the first of four Cabinet meetings and associated events being held outside Edinburgh over the summer.
The Highland town will be followed as host by Stirling, Isle of Bute and Kilmarnock.
This follows on from two previous years of Summer Cabinet programmes where hundreds of people have participated in events in Dundee, Melrose, Stornoway, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dumfries, Inverness, Pitlochry and Skye.
On Monday evening, First Minister Alex Salmond will host a reception celebrating Scotland's Year of Food and Drink at Clashmore Village Hall. The reception will recognise the work of local individuals, organisations and companies in contributing to the promotion of quality produce.
On Tuesday the FM will chair a formal meeting of the Scottish Cabinet at Burghfield House. A public discussion event with Ministers on the Government's 'Vision for Scotland', hosted by the FM, will take place at Dornoch Academy. Members of the public and representatives from local civic organisations are attending.
Mr Salmond said:
"Last October I was very pleased to perform the official opening of Burghfield House Hotel, part of the North Highland College. During that visit I pledged to bring the Scottish Cabinet to Dornoch this summer and I'm delighted that the first of our four Summer Cabinet meeting programmes will be coming to the town.
"In Dornoch, the Scottish Government is taking Cabinet directly to the people, following on from the success of the previous two years of summer Cabinets. Ministers and I are looking forward to coming to Dornoch for this historic first meeting in the town.
"As a Government, we are committed to staying in touch with the people and the issues that matter to them. Taking the Cabinet out of Edinburgh to areas such as the Highlands provides us with a greater opportunity to meet many individuals and organisations from the local communities and listen to their views on a range of issues."