Pilot Pentland Firth and Orkney Waters Marine Spatial Plan. Summary.

Summary of what worked well

• Partnership between Marine Scotland and local planning authorities
• Developing a plan that reflects the aspirations of local communities as well as national policy priorities
• Good small core team with an appropriate mix of expertise
• Willingness of core agencies to actively participate in advisory group
• Planning Issues and Options stage to engage stakeholders to shape the plan early in the process to gauge priorities, inform vision, aims and objectives, and scope the policies
• Engaging stakeholders in identifying the scope of what policies should cover and policy drafting
• Use of National Marine Plan interactive as a web based mapping tool
• The substantial resources produced i.e. in the form of the Plan and all its supporting documents, which will help support fragile local communities in North Caithness and Suther-land and Orkney by providing a wealth of marine data on a variety of issues and sectors