There’s been much tooing and froing on this one – largely with Crofters unable to decide on whether they most want the cultural security of protection of croft land and houses or the personal security of knowing they can decroft a house or sell land for a holiday home as needs be.

Today the final version of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill has been released, set for Parliamentary Scrutiny between now and the Summer recess.

Carrying measures designed to ensure the survival of crofting as a way of life, it aims to tackle absenteeism, neglect and speculation.

The Bill’s key points are:

• action to address speculation on croft land through robust assessment of applications to take land out of crofting
• a more accountable and democratic Crofters Commission by making the majority of members crofters elected by crofters
• a duty on the Commission to tackle absenteeism and neglect.
• a new, definitive map-based croft register (with estimated costs to crofters reduced from £250 to between £80 and £130)

Roseanna Cunningham, Environment Minister, has just launched the Bill at a croft in Inverness. (Don’t you get fed up with these cliched photo-ops, ranging from at least the appropriateness of this to the surrealism of Gordon Brown launching economic policy in Primary Schools).

The Minister said: ‘Crofting is a vital part of Scotland’s social, geographical and cultural make-up yet it’s very existence is under threat.  Absenteeism is running at ten per cent and more and more quality land is being removed from crofting tenure.

‘There is consensus that something has to be done to reverse this decline and, while there have undoubtedly been differences of opinion about how best to do it, much progress has been made in recent months to reach agreement on a way forward.

‘This Bill does not shy away from the issues that need to be addressed and sets out measures that will ensure crofting not only survives but thrives in the 21st century’.

The reality is that Scotland’s crofters, often faced with  having to choose between the survival of their way of life and their personal surviva, are akin to the Irish peasants when the country was under English domination.

They spoke Gaelic but they wanted their children to have the best chance in life – which meant speaking the more portable language of English. So they insisted on English being taught in the hedge schools. The children flourished and the language died. You celebrate one and mourn the other.

The myth is that the English deliberately crushed the Irish language, like the similar myth that the holiday home and the absentee ‘crofter’ crush crofting. The fact is that in both cases, the agent of decline is economic pressure – and that’s hard to set aside.

Related Posts

• Shucksmith predicts no reforms in crofting (0)
• 100 year-old bull hire scheme review completed (0)
• Crofting Reform Bill to protect against loss to holiday homes (0)
• Minister takes action on absenteeism in crofting (0)
• Cunningham blinks first – no occupancy requirement for Crofting Bill (0)

---

The Latest News from ForArgyll delivered via email, weekly or daily. You know it makes sense!

---

Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping | | Print This Post