Crofters dig in over radical shake-up of years of tradition

Published on Tuesday 29 July 2008 22:58

OPPOSITION is growing among crofters against proposals in a government-commissioned report on the future of the unique way of life.

An inquiry under rural policy expert Professor Mark Shucksmith was set up last year and its report in May mapped out a way forward for crofting.

It recommended the winding- up of the Crofters' Commission and its regulation and development functions transferred to a federation of crofting boards and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Prof Shucksmith said he also wanted to ensure that all crofts are occupied by an active, resident crofter and recommended tying all crofts to residency, even after they are sold or assigned.

But a petition raised at the Scottish Parliament by Netta Mackenzie, a former chair of the Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF), urges the Scottish Government not to adopt Prof Shucksmith's proposals.

A new body, the Crofting Rights Emergency Action Group (CREAG), has also set up a website geared towards the "active and total opposition" of the report.

Prof Shucksmith questioned whether legislation introducing rights to assign, to decroft and buy the landlord's interest has been damaging to crofting and the wider community as a market has developed in crofts and croft land.

The report says there is a perception that houses and land can be readily bought and decrofted and taken out of the reach of regulation. To counter this it recommends attaching residency "burdens" when crofts are transferred. In return for removing a croft house from these conditions, a crofter must allow the resulting bare land to be assigned by the local crofting board.

However, opponents argue the proposals would significantly reduce the value of houses and crofts and crofters will find it difficult to borrow against the security of their homes.

The petition, which has so far been signed by 172 people, argues there is an over emphasis on cheap housing, rather than emphasis on the fundamentals relating to crofting, in the report and that local boards will be bureaucratic and expensive.

Ms Mackenzie is also against the abolition of the Crofters' Commission after 50 years. She said: "If properly led and firmly directed, the commission could achieve a great deal for crofting. There is a wealth of expertise there built up over 50 years."

Angus Macdonald, a crofter and former councillor from Benbecula, said: "If the report is adopted it will have a detrimental effect on the whole of crofting. It is putting a burden on the house, in other words it's pure feudalism. We are being turned into peasants.

"It would be like the government placing burdens on houses in Inverness or Glasgow which stopped people selling them until the council said when to sell them and who to sell them to. What happened to human rights?"

Norman Macdonald, a member of the Shucksmith committee, said that many of the criticisms are misguided.