MSPs urge go-ahead for crofters' buyout of Lewis estate

A GROUP of MSPs is urging the Scottish Government to approve a proposed hostile buyout of an estate by island crofters.

Earlier this month, new applications were submitted by a local trust to ministers to buy the 25,000-acre Pairc Estate in Lewis.

The community has been trying for five years to buy the estate, where a 26-turbine wind farm is planned. It had been hoped an amicable deal could be achieved, but talks with the landowner, Barry Lomas, broke down.

A stumbling block has been a 75-year lease the landlord set up with a subsidiary company, Pairc Renewables, which then signed a deal with Scottish and Southern Energy to build the wind farm on the land.

The new linked applications seek to purchase the larger part of the Pairc Estate and the 75-year lease using the Land Reform (Scotland) Act.

Mr Lomas said that the latest application was part of a "campaign of hostility towards the landlord".

He said the trust had put forward a proposal for part of the estate, but not the interposed lease, in November, but had no funders.

Yesterday, three Highlands and Islands Labour MSPs, Peter Peacock, Rhoda Grant and David Stewart, pressed the environment minister Roseanna Cunningham to approve the buyout.

Mr Peacock said: "This continues to be a most deserving case, is clearly in the wider public interest and has the overwhelming support of the community. Indeed, it is an example of why this act is so important to the welfare and development of rural communities."

Meanwhile, Ms Cunningham announced yesterday a 100,000 fund to help crofters map out the boundaries of their land in a move that could ease land disputes.