Crackdown on absentee crofters gets early results

A PURGE on absentee crofters has resolved 86 cases in the first three months of this year, the annual report of the Crofters' Commission reveals.

The Crofting Reform Bill passed this summer promised a clamp-down on the near-2,000 absentees and on those who neglect croft land.

Figures from the commission yesterday show that 67 absentees are now living on the crofts. Most of those who returned were based in mainland Scotland, with a few in England.

A total of 27 of the crofts involved are in the Western Isles, 14 in Caithness and Sutherland, eight in Wester Ross, six in Inverness-shire, five in Skye, four in Argyll and three in the Northern Isles. Six of the absentees had died and six crofts were assigned by the absentee to new tenants.

In seven cases, crofts were assigned to new tenants who have yet to take up the land and are presently living in places as far away as Leeds and Coventry and are being monitored to ensure they take up the crofts within an agreed timescale

Nick Reiter, the commission's chief executive, said: "Crofting remained high on the political agenda with a year of debate and change, but the commission is firm in its belief the keystones to crofting are occupancy, active land use and shared management.

"The new Occupancy Initiative began in January with a clear mandate from Scottish ministers to identify crofts which have been absent and unused.

"The passing of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 will create new opportunities and challenges which I know the new Crofting Commission will rise to."

A previous purge on absenteeism found people living in Canada, the United States, Australia, Turkey and other parts of the UK still registered as crofters.

Drew Ratter, the commission convener, said a great deal of time and energy was invested in encouraging crofters to return or finding new crofters.