Commissioners suspension call

Call for crofting commissioners to be suspended over "unlawful" decisions

22 June 2016

Two crofters who are were on a grazings committee sacked by the Crofting Commission are calling on the Scottish Government to investigate the "unlawful" actions of the agency.

All member on the Upper Coll grazings committee were thrown out of office following a village over the management of communal moorland.

Kenneth Macdonald and Calum Maclean urge crofting minister, Fergus Ewing, to suspend crofting commissioners.

In a letter to Mr Fergus they say: "In your recent correspondence you indicated that complaints against the Crofting Commission should go through the normal procedures. In normal circumstances the processes you have indicated would be appropriate and useful. We find ourselves in extraordinary circumstances and so we are looking for an extraordinary response from the government

"We are facing a situation where the Crofting Commission have unlawfully taken far reaching, extremely damaging and incoherent decisions affecting the locally democratically elected grazings committees. These decisions have destroyed the confidence crofters ought to have in the regulator and in the government under whom this body operates.

"We obviously cannot accept decisions of a body who operate in such a manner, as it is clear that these were incongruous, unlawful and born of blatant malpractice.

A commission that says that it has no authority to revisit its own decisions has carte blanche to abuse the authority invested in it by the very people that elected them. This they have done in the knowledge that their illegal actions and decisions cannot be challenged any time soon, and not at all, if the plaintiff has no access to serious funds to cover initial advocacy costs.

"The recent resignation of a board member together with the concerns expressed by Susan Walker, ex-convener of the Crofting Commission, in the West Highland Free Press, go to prove that there is substance to our contention that decisions have serious flaws. The fact that they have acted in contempt of the will of parliament in regard to forcing the distribution of all resumption funds, ought to show that they have no fear of working well outside their remit. Their attempt to cover their decisions by issuing conflicting statements and hiding evidence, borders on incompetence, to say the least.

"It is noted that they operate at arm's length from the minister which actually puts them very close to him.

They are surely accountable to the government and it is assumed that intervention powers are vested in the minister. Where the commission are not authorised to revisit their decisions it is therefore accepted that the minister has the authority to do so. It is our contention that there needs to be a re- evaluation of the remit and powers of the Crofting Commission to ensure accountability, and to give a tier of management above them to whom concerns can the more immediately be addressed.

"We call on the government in the first place to reinstate the committees democratically elected and to remove the constables illegally empowered as a first step towards redressing this calamitous mismanagement.

"Having the committees back in place respects our democratic right and our human rights and would not stand in the way of an independent investigation, but would rather assist it. Secondly we call on the government to suspend those responsible for this debacle within the Crofting Commission and an external investigation carried out so that the confidence of the crofting community is restored in the Crofting Commission.

"The times require decisive action!"