Land reform law requires revamp says Allan 10/7/11
MSP Alasdair Allan has written to Environment Minister, Stewart Stevenson, to make the case for improvement to land reform legislation. He also seeks a new Scottish Land Fund.
Alasdair Allan said: “The SNP manifesto for the Scottish Elections this year committed the SNP to reviewing current Land Reform legislation with a view to improving it. Whilst I fully support land reform legislation I believe that the current legislation has a number of obvious weaknesses.
“Two of the buyouts I have been involved with illustrate, in different ways, the weaknesses with current legislation. In Pairc, the buyout has faced the enormous task of mapping an estate to the satisfaction of complex legislation.
“In West Harris, the community faced other legal obstacles because the land was government owned. Processes like this need to be simplified for the communities involved.
“We are also committed to establishing a new Scottish Land Fund, something which is important in allowing other communities across Scotland to benefit from funding in allowing them to progress their own buyouts.
“Fragile communities need to be able to develop and to take charge of their own destiny, like has successfully happened in places like North Harris, but to do this they need reliable sources of funding.
“I have therefore written to the Environment Minister today to ask for him to take consideration of these points and to look at taking action on these issues as soon as may be possible.”