Call for inquiry into crofting commission

Scottish Labour’s candidate for the Western Isles, Rhoda Grant, has backed calls for a full inquiry into the workings of the Crofting Commission.

Mrs Grant states that the organisation's decision to remove the Upper Coll grazings committee "run counter to local democracy."

In a letter to the commission’s chief executive, Catriona MacLean, she wrote: "It is my understanding that this committee has carried out the wishes and instructions of the commission and complied with all requirements, so in my view they should not have been removed from post."

Call for inquiry into Crofting Commission's actions

26 April 2016

Mrs Grant said: "I believe that this sorry episode is symptomatic of a much wider problem with the Crofting Commission which has gained an unwelcome reputation for its high-handed, overbearing attitude towards good people doing their best to hold crofting together."

She said that the SNP Government’s 2010 Crofting Act had been "a disaster" and had completely changed the nature of what was formerly the Crofters Commission.

Mrs Grant said: "Like so much the SNP does, it was all about giving more power to the centre. Unfortunately, that power is now being exercised in a crude and insensitive way which is causing disruption and offence in crofting communities.

"The whole system of crofting tenure is in a very parlous state and it needs the support of a regulatory body which acts firmly and fairly in the crofting interest. Instead, we have a bull-in-the-china shop approach which is undermining the work of well-run crofting villages, for reasons that seem to be random rather than for any consistent, coherent reason.

"The Crofting Commission is a creature of statute and nobody is empowered to behave as a law unto himself.

"There must be an urgent inquiry, relating to Upper Coll and also more generally, to find if the commission has acted beyond its powers and whether its recent behaviour is consistent with the interests of the crofting community."