Croft registration is “tax on crofting” 16/10/14
The rule to force crofters to officially register their holdings is “damaging legislation” that amounts to nothing more than a “new tax on crofting” says a Lewis councillor.
Donald Crichton, vice chairman of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar's development committee is urging crofting minister Paul Wheelhouse to repeal the law.
He criticised the £90 registration fee and pointed out mapping costs could hike the outlay up to a further £150.
In a letter to the minister, Donald Crichton said: "In my view assistance is urgently
required to offset these fees in order to mitigate the costs especially when falling
on elderly or low income households."
He continued: "It was anticipated that communities
would co-
“It is now clear, however, that this "community mapping" approach has not materialised and most (if not all) notices for the registrations of crofts appearing in the papers in recent months have been from individual crofters and not townships.
“The "community mapping" initiative has been an abject failure and crofters are now left to carry out this process on their own in the majority of crofting villages.
“The inevitable outcome of this will be increased costs, more boundary disputes and
delays in registering crofts on the register.
To register a croft takes a minimum
of one year. Many assignations, house building plans and other developments on crofts
are being delayed pending the registration of a croft. This is yet another layer
of bureaucracy that crofters now have to face when developing croft enterprises."