Crofting Inquiry - Rannsachadh Croitearchd

I am very disappointed to see how little use this forum has had. I had not realised it had gone live until my wife told me. This is despite asking to be notified when the forum went life way back in June or July I think it was.
Anyway good to see it live now and I will be having my say over the next few weeks on various topics.
I hope we can encourage as many people as possible to take part and to give honest opinion without any fear of repercussions.
How long will the forum remain live for?
When will we get the final feedback from the Enquiry anyway.
Many thanks
Ruaridh

The Forum will remain live until the Committee of Inquiry is ready to finalise its recommendations to Ministers, which will be presented early next year.

The inquiry has not been well publicised, especially to those of us who are effectively crofters but are not included because we are outside the official crofting areas.

In our case, we work a holding that was a tenanted croft before 1886 but because the amendment to include Aberdeenshire in the crofting counties was defeated at that time, we're not an official croft in a crofting area.

Our croft, of six acres, was part of a tenanted holding of a farm and two crofts. The original tenant family bought the holding from the landlord just after World War 2, then hived off the croft we now own. They continue to work the small farm and other croft.

I work our croft full-time, breeding and finishing a small herd of pedigree pigs (boar, four sows), breeding poultry (20-30 hens), growing vegetable crops, and swapping the use of the main, grassed field to the neighbouring farmer. He grazes sheep on it or cuts sileage, in return we get lambs and use of him and his tractor. (My wife works off the croft.)

Before the most recent Scottish elections, we had quite a lot of consultation with our then MSP Norah Radcliffe about crofting and possible extensions of the crofting areas. Unfortunately, since Alex Salmond became our MSP that consultation and involvement has evaporated. (This is not a party political statement as I don't support either of their parties, it's just the way things have turned out.)

My wife and I originally wanted a croft in the official crofting areas, but after five year's searching in vain we decided it was better to settle for a croft anywhere we could find one we could afford. We were very keen to make the commitment to a community and to an agricultural life, as well as to be sustainable and respectful of the environment. She's a teacher, I have many skills, we have two young children and we are committed to the crofting life, so we could have brought a lot to a crofting community in the four years that we've already put into crofting. Croft availability and prices mean that never happened.

We'd like to see the crofting areas extended to the highland parts of Moray, Banff, Aberdeenshire, Perthshire, Dunbartonshire and Bute, which after all form part of the eastern and southern highlands. It's only a quirk of historical politics that these areas were left out.

(Oh, and while in some ways I'm an incomer, in others I'm not. I'm an Australian whose family were crofters on Mull, in Argyll and in Nairn. The wheel turns. My wife is a Scot.)

Originally Posted By: ModeratorThe Forum will remain live until the Committee of Inquiry is ready to finalise its recommendations to Ministers, which will be presented early next year.Hi,

I'm looking for a croft at the minute and as a way of introducing myself i've setup a website and forum for scottish crofters.
We are incomers as things go, and myself and my family are really looking forward to making a contribution to a crofting community.
There are 4 of us in total, myself 30 my wife 28 and we have two great kids of 9 & 3. Nice age gap!

If you'd like to take a look at the websites:

http://www.scottishcrofting.co.uk

and forum at

http://www.forum.scottishcrofting.co.uk

I'd just like to point out this Crofting Inquiry forum is the most important for getting your views heard NOW but the forum I have setup will be running continually.

In a way, I am not all that surprised at the lack of response as I was amaazed at the relatively low turn out at the Outer Hebrides public meetings. The Uist meeting which was on an evening in Benbecula only attracted 16 people from the whole of Uist and of them 9 were from North Uist. See evidence 283 for my submission.

Glad to see the forum is no finally working correctly. I was originally told it would be live in July and when I make the post above it was not displaying but glad it is showing ok now.
Unfortunately I am away from home at work at the moment overseas (like many crofters in the past who had to work away to supplement croft income) and will be unable to make any meaningful posts till I get home, however I fully intend to make my comments then.
Thanks to the forum administrators for getting the problems sorted on here.
Now all we have to do now is try and get people to leave their comments so that the inquiry gets a broader pointof view from what was collected at from the meetings.
I missed our one at Glenuig but my wife did manage to go and make comments. Her family have had our croft for as about as long as you can trace back in crofting history.

I'm not surprised to see a poor response. Who on earth knows this exists. I got the news from the new crofting forum........

g

On the contrary. The Crofting Inquiry has been well publicised. It has convened meetings to gather evidence and afterwards. It has kept everyone well advised of its procedures and how to engage with it.
The fact remains that, despite all this, only about 2000 people (at most) have come forward. This only goes to show that crofting is outmoded and archaic, having no place in 21st century Europe.
Those who would potentially benefit from the extension of the crofting areas constitute only a very small minority of Scotland’s population. The Committee met with 750 people and received evidence from 238 people and views on a public attitude survey from 1047 people (reported in “Towards the Future of Crofting” published by the Committee in February 2008). Even supposing each of the respondents were counted separately, 2035 people out of the population of Scotland (presuming 6 million) represents only 0.0339% It is difficult to see how the proposed legislation can therefore be said to be an issue of national interest at all.
Croftng has served its purpose and can now safely be phased out.

"The fact remains that, despite all this, only about 2000 people (at most) have come forward. This only goes to show that crofting is outmoded and archaic, having no place in 21st century Europe".

How does the word "FEAR" GRAB YOU?
Fear of the past, Fear of the present and Fear of the future.
FEAR, It is a strong word, think about how people feel about their feelings of fear before critizing them for feeling it.
As for Crofting having no place in the future or in 21st century Scotland.
You should take a look at the Ag Law, now there is a law that hasn't moved in the last few hundred years despite what it says on the packet!