Crofters vote for takeover of island estate

Published on Wednesday 9 December 2009 22:05

A GROUP of island crofters will today vote on plans for Scotland's first hostile estate takeover, five years after agreeing to the move.

It is the latest instalment in a saga of ownership of the 25,000-acre Pairc Estate on Lewis, which has been wrapped up in legal wrangling.

The community-led Pairc Trust is still in talks with owner Barry Lomas in the hope of achieving an amicable deal.

But in the meantime it will proceed with the postal ballot of the 400-strong population to gauge support to force a takeover.

John Randall, the former Registrar General for Scotland, who retired to Lewis and is now vice-chairman of the Pairc Trust, said: "Discussions have been reopened with Mr Lomas with a view to a voluntary transfer of the estate.

"There is still a long way to go," he said, "but we think it represents progress.

"We would not have made this progress without the Pairc Trust's decision to hold another ballot. We will continue that until we reach a satisfactory agreement for a voluntary transfer which is endorsed by the community."

The result of the vote will be known tonight, with a majority of both the 135 crofters and 377 crofters and other local people needed to proceed.

The estate on the Pairc peninsula in the South Lochs area of Lewis, has been owned by Mr Lomas's family since 1924.

A decision on a 26-turbine wind farm planned for part of the area is awaited from the Scottish Government.

As well as the estate purchase, the ballot will ask locals specifically about buying a so-called "interposed lease", which was set up by the land owner and which has been a major stumbling block to a deal.

In 2004, the trust attempted to use land reform legislation to buy the land from Mr Lomas, who was unwilling to sell.

The landlord then set up a 75-year lease with a subsidiary company, Pairc Renewables, which signed a deal with Scottish and Southern Energy to erect a wind farm.

The case was delayed for two years as the Scottish Executive went to court to challenge the interposed leases, but the Scottish Land Court later ruled that they were legal.

Ministers moved to close the loophole and a new clause in crofting law means that such leases can be bought, but cannot be backdated.

The takeover attempt was later abandoned as talks began on an "amicable" buyout, but no progress was made.

Earlier this month, the trust said the decision to hold another ballot followed frustration over "delaying tactics" by Mr Lomas.

Mr Lomas replied that the trust had shunned an offer of an amicable deal which would have allowed a transfer by March 2010.

Mr Randall said the interposed lease was needed not to get income from the wind farm, but to take control of the estate for community projects and to regenerate an area that was suffering from depopulation.

He said: "The principal objective is to get real control over most of the estate, it's not to buy the land where the wind farm is.

"What we want are the normal powers of a crofting landlord over the estate, to help us properly implement a strategy to regenerate the area, including housing, tourism and a whole series of things that other communities that have bought their land are now doing."

The mainly Gaelic-speaking area has seen its population drop from about 4,000 a century ago to under 400.

Mr Lomas declined to comment ahead of the ballot.

BRIEF HISTORY OF PEOPLE POWER

THE community ownership movement was pioneered in 1993 by the Assynt Crofters' Trust, which bought the 21,300-acre North Assynt Estate for 300,000.

Since then, more than 70 areas of land have come into community ownership or management. In 1995 businessman Michael Foljame gifted a third of the Hope and Melness estate in Sutherland to local crofters, who formed a trust to manage the land.

Two years later the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust bought the island for 1.5 million from the creditors of German artist Maruma. In 1999, the 70-strong population of the Knoydart estate led a bid to buy it from creditors of the private owner for 800,000.

The Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust bought the island in 2002 for 4.5m, with 3.5m coming from the Scottish Land Fund.

The North Harris estate and 19th century Amhuinnsuidhe Castle were bought in 2003 by the 800-strong community.