Crofting proposals ‘oppressive and ‘out of touch’

Proposals for the Scottish Crofting Bill have been met with disappointment by crofters who described it as oppressive and out of touch with reality.

The country’s 13,000 crofters who work the land part-time in the Highlands and Islands are struggling to encourage young people to take part in a traditional way of life where returns from remote, small-scale agriculture are poor.

It had been hoped that the Bill would revitalise the crofters’ waning way of life.

But the Scottish Crofting Foundation vice chairwoman, Marina Dennis, who heads the organisation’s working group on crofting reform, said the consultation document was “all stick and no carrot”.

“Regulation alone isn’t going to solve the problems crofting faces and adding costs is unacceptable and frankly insulting,” she said.

“If this government really wants crofting to flourish, as it claims, we need incentives for crofters to continue to croft and to encourage new-entrants, realistic payment for public goods delivered, fair support to the really less-favoured areas and increased housing assistance to reflect costs.”

Mrs Dennis added that crofters had not done well out of Scotland’s Rural Development Programme, and urgently needed the reintroduction of incentives like the old cropping grants which encouraged crofters to work neglected land.

The consultation on the draft Bill will close on 12 August.