Get a bit of Gigha here, we need £400,000

Published on Sunday 29 December 2002 00:00

ISLANDERS on Gigha - the island that was the subject of Scotland’s biggest-ever community buy-out - are to sell off £400,000 worth of building plots to help meet debts.

The money is needed to make payment to former owner Derek Holt, who must receive 150,000 by March.

The sale of 20 plots has also been sparked by the failure so far by the islanders to sell their main asset: the magnificent 14-bedroom Achmore House, which has an asking price of around 1m.

A deal to turn it into a luxury hotel with golf course has fallen through after the English property developer wanted to add housing to the development, which did not meet islanders’ approval.

There are currently two other potential buyers: a woman with Hong Kong business interests who is interested in turning the house into a residential retreat for artists and an American whose family has past links to Gigha.

But no bid has yet been made and if there is no sale by March, then Achmore House will be sold on the open market. Islanders have so far tried to sell it independently through their website.

The Gigha Heritage Trust, which owns the island, has to pay 1m back to the Scottish Land Fund (SLF) in just 15 months.

The SLF enabled the 110 islanders to buy Gigha for 4m in March last year. Islanders have almost single-handedly raised 90,000 but still have a long way to go in paying back the 1m by March 2004.

The payback must include 200,000 in cash or some of the island’s assets could be seized.

Also under the buy-out deal, Holt must be paid 150,000 by next March.

Holt accepted the islanders’ bid for Gigha even though he had received a substantially larger one from another party. He used to live in Achmore House and expected to benefit from the sale.

"We still have a few interested parties in the house but if it is not sold by March - and time is running out - we will put it on the open market," said Lorna MacAlister, the trust’s company secretary.

"We have to pay Mr Holt by March and we had hoped it would have been from the sale of the house.

"But we are now going to sell some house plots, around 20, for residents or those with a connection with the island.

"There are already seven people who want a plot and they will cost over 20,000 each."

Last week, the BBC caused a row over a year-long fly-on-the-wall documentary on Gigha by paying just 500 to the islanders for a filming facility fee.

The docu-soap is due to be screened on BBC2 on January 10 but some residents refused to take part in it.

A crew spent a couple of days-a-week on the 3,400-acre island over the last year. They finished filming Gigha: Buying Our Island last month.