Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) has called for the Scottish Government to reverse its decision to deprive the community on the Isle of Raasay of their shooting and fishing rights, which has been in the hands of a co-operative of crofters on the island for almost twenty years. Environment Minister Paul Wheelhouse last week defended the decision of the Government, as landlord of the island, to award the lease to an Ayrshire-based company on the grounds that it was ‘the best value for Scotland’.
SCF Chair, Derek Flyn said, “When we were the Scottish Crofters Union, our organisation was instrumental in getting the fishing and shooting rights into the control of the crofting community. We are therefore stunned that all the benefit this brought to Raasay has been undone by the stroke of a pen of a faceless civil servant in Edinburgh. The ‘best value’ the Minister refers to is in fact in the region of a few thousand pounds per year. This small sum will be far outstripped by the damage done to the island’s economy.”
