The Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF), the only member-led organisation dedicated to promoting crofting has greeted the Draft Crofting reform Bill consultation paper released today with enthusiasm tempered with caution.
SCF Chairman Neil MacLeod said “we are all aware that there needs to be an overhaul of crofting legislation, regulation and, critically, the support for crofting. We are looking at this consultation with optimism and at first glance it is a thorough document which attempts to address issues that came out of the Committee of Inquiry on Crofting. There are positive aspects such as the welcome move towards a more democratic governing body, but there are areas over which we will be examining possible consequences and which may need recommendation for modification. We will be widely consulting our membership on their views to inform our position.”
The consultation released today lays out a draft crofting reform bill that will address the governance of crofting, the formation and maintenance of an accurate register of crofts, the possibility of standard security on tenanted crofts to raise loans without de-crofting, an occupancy requirement for houses on de-crofted land and effective regulation concerning absenteeism and neglect.
