Following the Scottish Government's decision this week to withdraw part of its Rosal forest estate in Sutherland from open market sale following public criticism, the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) is asking the Government to examine its policies on the sale of public land, community ownership and the creation of new crofts.
SCF Chair, Derek Flyn, believes the Rosal case demonstrates some of the problems caused by the manner in which the Forestry Commission conducts the process of land sale. He said: “There is no surprise that local communities did not come forward expressing an interest in the land, when, as the sales particulars were keen to point out, communities were cleared from this land and that it is a deserted ‘wilderness’. Putting this land on the market in this way is simply perpetuating a system of land ownership concentrated into few hands, a system the Scottish people want to see changed.”
