Crofting bill wins MSPs' backing

The parliament's environment committee called for changes

MSPs have approved the controversial crofting reform bill by an overwhelming majority at Holyrood.

It will see new crofts created in the seven traditional crofting counties and elsewhere in the Highlands.

However, the failure of the bill to address crofting tenancies has annoyed many crofters. Ministers have set up a separate inquiry into that issue.

A proper register of the 18,000 crofts will be set up to prevent absentee crofting and bring land into full use.

The reform of the Crofting Commission and measures to prevent the sale of crofting tenancies, the so-called commercialisation of crofting, have been put off pending the results of a new committee of inquiry.

All we can say about the legislation is that it's been savaged and it's been reduced now to basically a sheet of A4 John Laing Scottish Crofting Foundation director

MSPs passed the final stage of the bill by 91 votes to five, with 20 abstentions.

Environment Minister Ross Finnie told the Scottish Parliament that he believed it was an important piece of legislation.

He said: "I hope this bill will be good for crofters and good for the crofting counties.

"I hope that also the work of the committee of inquiry will see a further step in improving that position."

John Farquhar Munro, MSP for Ross, Skye and Inverness West, failed in his bid to have amendments made to the bill to protect certain crofts from being developed, but not where it went against the best interests of a communtiy.

There are more than 17,700 crofts in Scotland

He said: "They would, however, stop individuals from developing some of the scarce and better quality croft land."

Highlands and Islands SNP MSP Rob Gibson said it was impossible to look at crofting alone without looking at the whole fabric of life in the crofting counties.

He claimed that crofters faced extensive bureaucracy, a problem he hopes will be tackle by the inquiry.

Mr Gibson said: "This bill, too long in the making, is but an early instalment, but the SNP never the less is happy to support its passage."

'Raised profile'

Scottish Conservative rural affairs spokesman Ted Brocklebank welcomed what he called the "disembowelling" of the earlier bill but added that he would have preferred a totally new one.

He said it was far from the "last word in crofting" that it was originally intended to be and that his party would be abstaining.

Scottish Crofting Foundation director John Laing said the bill approved by MSPs barely resembled its original form.

He said: "All we can say about the legislation is that it's been savaged and it's been reduced now to basically a sheet of A4.

"But I suppose if any good has come out of it, it is that we are going to have a commission of inquiry led by Professor Mark Shucksmith and it has certainly raised the profile of crofting throughout Scotland."