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Kenneth Macdonald, the chairman of the deposed committee and clerk of the newly elected committee, was apparently refused permission to speak when he tried to raise a point of order on that claim.

 

Accepted convention for conducting meetings is to immediately stop business to consider the apparently irregularity highlighted by the point. The issue is resolved before the meeting continues.

Mr Souter did not deal with the point but responded that he would continue and take it at the conclusion of his statement to the meeting - which angered most crofters present who left the building in protest.

 

Mr Souter said the small handful of shareholders remaining declared the walkout "to be an obvious pre-planned move."

 

Those left at the meeting voted unanimously to support his current activity and also approve a new set of grazing rules "subject to some final amendments offered from the floor," he added.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

Crofters walk out on meeting  

14 September 2016

Crofters walked-out during a village grazings meeting in Upper Coll in Lewis.

They allege a grazings officer installed by the crofting regulator - who called the meeting - was not lawfully appointed.

Colin Souter was put in place by the Crofting Commission to temporarily run the functions of the committee when it was sacked by the regulator following a row over the management of the communal moorland.

Disaffected crofters set up a new grazings committee on Saturday and maintain Mr Souter's appointment is "illegal."

A legal action has been launched to consider if the commission acted lawfully in dismissing the former committee.

The walkout was sparked when Mr Souter apparently claimed to be the official committee at a crofters' meeting in the village on Tuesday night.