Shetland Islands Broadcasting Company

The results after the count in the Shetland constituency of the Scottish parliament elections have been announced. The results were:- Hannah Mary Goodlad (Scottish National Party) 5,453 votes, 47.3 percent; Emma Macdonald (Scottish Liberal Democrat) 3,936 votes, 34.1 percent; Alex Armitage (Scottish Greens) 949 votes, 8.2 percent; Vic Currie (Reform UK) 725 votes 6.2 percent; John Erskine (Scottish Labour) 169 votes, 1.4 percent; Douglas Barnett (Scottish Conservative and Unionist) 137 votes, 1.1 percent; Brian Nugent (Alliance to Liberate Scotland) 65 votes 0.5 percent and Peter Tait (Independent) 50 votes, 0.4 percent; Hannah Mary Goodlad was elected member of the Scottish parliament for Shetland with a majority of 1517 votes, a ten percent SNP swing from the Liberal Democrats.

This is the first time that a political party other than Liberal Democrats has been returned in the constituency of Shetland of the Scottish parliament, the first Scottish parliament election being in 1999. In the Orkney and Shetland constituency for the UK parliament, a political party other than Liberal Democrats, or Liberal, was returned only twice since 1832, that being in 1935 and 1945, with no elections in 1939 and 1943 because of the Second World War.

From the 17,979 registered voters in Shetland 11,535 votes were cast in the constituency vote, a turnout of 64.1 percent and down from 66.1 percent in 2021. The highest turnout at a polling station was at Uyeasound with 71.8 percent. 82.6 percent of postal voters used their vote. The regional list turnout was 11,523 votes cast.

With the floating production storage and off-loading vessel Petrojarl Rosebank berthed in Ågotnes in Sotra in Norway being prepared for its eventual decades-long anchorage in the Rosebank field, the most intense work to date is underway in the Rosebank field, 85 nautical miles west-north-west of Unst. Seven offshore support vessels are working in the field.

A group of experts has recommended that all schools should remove online photos of pupils, such as on school websites or on social media, although posting photos of children is increasingly less common by Shetland schools.

The coastguard helicopter based at Sumburgh was tasked to a fishing boat about 50 nautical miles west of Unst.

The Hjaltland Housing Association has responded to the ongoing public concern about dust from the Staneyhill housing development, including that expressed at the recent meeting of the Lerwick Community Council.