Simplifying crofting law is priority, highlights report 25/5/14
Simplifying crofting law should be an urgent priority according to a land reform report commissioned by the First Minister.
The Land Reform Review Group, launched by Alex Salmond, insists that “developing a modern and robust statutory framework for crofting should be a priority for the Scottish Government.
The report stresses “that reducing the complexity of crofting legislation should be an underpinning principle.”
The body’s landmark report states the “crofting community should be at the heart of any such process, and have a clearly defined role within it.”
The group highlighted a comment from an “eminent commentator” on crofting who stated: “To solve crofting law complexity, scrap (the) lot and start again with clean sheet. Each Act always makes things worse.”
The body fears “crofting law is too easily seen as an uninviting disincentive to new crofters, particularly those outside traditional crofting areas. The group recognises that inevitable tensions exist between safeguarding features which have long protected crofting and the aim of creating a less complex legislative framework.”
Also in desperate need of streamlining are the “extraordinarily complex and potentially extremely difficult to fulfil” requirements to map every crofts, apportionment and plot for a hostile crofting community buyout bid.
The review group stresses the requirements are both “unnecessarily onerous on the community body and create needlessly fertile territory for hostile challenges.”
Indeed, they “go far beyond that which would be required by the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland in order to register title to ownership of such land,” and should be “substantially simplified.”
Establishing a clear definition of resident is necessarily not only to determine the members of the crofting community body seeking to acquire the land nut also to identify those eligible to vote in the process, insists the report. The benefit means buyout ballots are less open to legal challenge on technicalities.