Only with a huge amount of hard work can community buy-outs succeed

Ever since land reform legislation was passed in Scotland in 2003, romantic stories of communities taking their destiny in their own hands have grabbed the headlines. Some Hebridean islands have been able to rid themselves of absentee landlords and bold moves at micro level have seen transfers of assets to native peoples. In South Kintyre, residents have just voted to launch a buy-out of Machrihanish Airbase for £1.

But what happens when the media depart and the community is left to get on with it? What issues will the people of Kintyre have to deal with in exchange for their pound?

This is the lesser told story of Scotland's social experiment and, with more communities invoking the legislation and taking their future into their own hands, painful truths should be faced sooner rather than later.

When the islanders of Gigha decided to embark on a fundraising effort to secure 4 million to purchase their island in 2002, it was rightly regarded as a brave step. Their story would inspire and inform the Land Reform (Scotland) Act. Here was a tiny community of just over a hundred people, struggling to justify a school and with near dilapidated housing stock. The island's prospects following a long-running failure of private owners to invest, looked bleak. For the Gigha people, running the 'Good island' themselves was the last throw of the dice.

Fortunately, they rolled a six. Still, the last eight years have not been without challenges. Lukas Lehmann of the Gigha Heritage Trust is fully supportive of any community attempting to take control of its assets providing they enter the process with their eyes open. But with David Cameron advocating his 'Big Society' plan where people are given more say over local developments, he sounds a reminder that this type of model is still very much in the testing laboratory.

"I think what we have achieved in Gigha in a short space of time is quite extraordinary, but the real proof of success will be known only after the first generation of people who have experienced this type of community come through. There was no blueprint and it has been a huge learning curve. I don't think anyone expected the amount of work that would have to be put in and, to this day, people expend a huge effort every week."

Gigha pioneered the first community-owned, grid connected wind farm. Since then, other communities have copied this innovation. Sixty per cent of the housing stock has been renovated, the population is up to nearly 160 and optimism has returned. However, the issue of access to funding for projects remains and, in the current economic situation, is unlikely to become easier. Gigha is one of several community groups to have signed a request to ministers at Holyrood to re-establish the Scottish Land Fund. Without assistance from the Fund, the buy-out would not have taken place.

"In the present climate, people might think: why invest in places with little population but innovations are happening in these places which are being duplicated elsewhere. Scotland, as a whole, is the beneficiary," says Lehmann.

In Comrie, Perthshire, where the local community has taken over a former prisoner of war camp, there have been exciting developments.

The purchase of the base has allowed the renovation of nine Nissen huts for business use and there are plans for energy creation and waste reduction.

Alan Caldwell of the Comrie Development Trust says the land reform law presented the village with an opportunity. However, he says governments and others should not presume communities spring up fully functional, once the buy-out is complete. "There is not a manual for this you can take off the shelf. It is all about the capacity and the skills of the community to deliver."

'Big Society' has laudable aims but the devil, it seems, will be in the detail.

For information on community buy-outs, visit www.dtascot.org.uk