Absentee landlord returns to court in battle over estate

THE landlord at the centre of Scotland's first hostile estate takeover has gone to court to try to block the move.

Last month Roseanna Cunningham, the environment minister, gave crofters the go-ahead to buy the 26,800-acre Pairc Estate in Lewis.

But owner Barry Lomas has raised an appeal at Stornoway Sheriff Court against the decision to try to stop the sale.

In the meantime, the Pairc Trust, representing the crofters, says it will press on with fundraising in the hope of taking over the land later this year.

An independent expert will now determine the market value of the land, which should be known next month.

Mr Lomas, a Warwickshire businessman whose family has owned the estate since 1924, has previously sought a judicial review to challenge the buy-out. He claims a forced sale breaches his human rights and that he had become the "whipping boy of land reform".

Mr Lomas said yesterday: "The legislation has permitted Pairc Estate to make an appeal to the Sheriff Court, so this and the judicial review will be used as a defence against a deliberately targeted, hostile and political attack on a landlord who seeks to protect the reasonable value of its assets."

Angus McDowall, chairman of Pairc Trust, said it is determined to pursue the buyout. He said: "The latest legal action by the landlord is deeply disappointing but par for the course.

"It has been clear for many years that he will use every tactic at his disposal in an attempt to delay and frustrate the legitimate and clearly-expressed aspirations of our community, and we can expect more of the same now that the government has backed us.

"Meanwhile, we will redouble our efforts to carry out the wishes of the community. We have already given our views to the independent valuer on the value of the assets to be purchased, and we await his conclusions with interest."

Almost 400 people currently live on the estate which has 11 townships and 208 crofts spread over an area the size of Edinburgh.

The trust first mooted a buy-out in 2004, but talks with the absentee landlord broke down. It later applied under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which gives crofting communities the right to buy the land they croft and adjacent land whether or not the owner wishes to sell if ministers approve.

The Scottish Government still has to decide whether to give planning permission for a 26-turbine wind farm on the land, which could affect the land value.

The area's population has dropped from about 4,000 to 400 over the last century.

However the trust hopes to halt that decline and has already drawn up plans which include affordable housing, a camper van site, holiday packages for visitors and the possibility of renewable energy projects.