The Isle of Wight was one of two councils which did not make it to the Islands Forum in Scotland as planned this week, while a number of others had already opted to attend the event virtually instead.

Severe and damaging weather made for tricky conditions and forced the cancellation of some flights to the remote island of Lewis.

Arriving in Glasgow on Sunday, October 8, the Isle of Wight delegate, Cllr Jonathan Bacon and his North Ayrshire counterpart ended up turning back after they were unable to get their connecting flight.

Cllr Bacon travelled home on Monday afternoon, while those who did make it to Lewis's capital, Stornoway were taking part in discussions.

On Tuesday Isle of Wight Council Leader, Cllr Phil Jordan, logged on to a Teams meeting, with nine other island leaders.

Isle of Wight County Press: The coast of the Isle of Lewis and inset, IW Council Leader Phil Jordan and Cllr Jonathan Bacon.

The virtual meeting was described as a 'fringe event' by the government's Levelling Up team and was not attended by Michael Gove, chair of the Forum.

Those who did make it to the Western Isles' Lews Castle heard the Levelling Up Secretary propose a new 'task and finish' group of representatives, to look at island transport connections.  
Mr Gove said: "It’s now time to make real progress on improving connectivity.
"We need to make sure we have a long term strategy as part of our work to level up all parts of the United Kingdom."

The forum also agreed further work will be carried out to improve digital connectivity.
Attendees also engaged with the UK Infrastructure Bank, on financial and advisory services and visited Stornoway’s deep-water terminal and Harland & Wollf’s Arnish site.  

Council Leader, Cllr Phil Jordan, said: "There is an irony in all of this, as the main topic was connectivity. 

"This inability to travel demonstrated the facts we constantly put to Government - that islands are precarious and have additional uncertainties, let alone costs, with travelling to and from them.

"We will continue to press Government for recognition of our detachment from the mainland and to consider supporting our community in a fairer way, on funding that recognises living on an island is different and more challenging than living on the mainland."

Among those who were at the Islands Forum in person were representatives from a number of Scottish islands, and those from the Isles of Scilly.

Representatives from Wales and Ireland were among those who had already planned to attend online. 

The last time the Islands Forum was held was on the Isle of Wight, in May.

The next Islands Forum will be held in Anglesey, Wales, in the spring.