COUNCIL leaders have refreshed calls for a "single island authority" to ensure decisions about public services are made within the region.
As a suggestion to decentralise control in Scotland, the idea has been discussed for several years. In 2018, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar agreed to consult with community groups on the establishment of such an authority which would include the Western Islands health board.
The idea has gained attention after Scottish Labour proposed reducing the number of boards from 14 to three in order to cut through "bureaucracy" earlier this year.
Deputy leader of the council, Duncan McInnes said: "Will the health board keep going? As we see it, it won't."
"It would seem to bring public organizations together, and especially that those who are elected by the people would have the opportunity to be the ones who would manage issues going forward.
"I see a lot of opportunities in that," he said.
The recommendation was officially made in a report by Comhairle chief executive Malcolm Burr to a meeting of the policy and resources committee in 2018.
Speaking to BBC Naidheachdan this week, Burr said: "We have been expecting this situation for years, that there is not going to be enough funding to keep public services running in the Western Isles as they are currently being provided.
"With that on the horizon, there is a real risk that decision-making, that workers at all levels, are gradually being pulled away from the Western Isles to other areas through integration, through new structures, through national or regional structures.
"If you put the Western Isles on a map of Scotland, it would stretch from Glasgow to Aberdeen.
"If we are not a region, what is a region?"
The 2018 report suggested health and social care, education and children services, innovation and enterprise, regulatory services, and infrastructure and assets as boards to be included within the model.
