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Showing 37 of 2,354,908 contributions. Latest 30 days: 0. Coverage: 12 May 1999 — 25 Mar 2026.
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
When we were in Oban last week, we heard evidence from the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust about what it is doing to create new crofts on Gigha and how it goes about choosing tenants for the crofts. The trust has a list of priorities or points that it marks off against applicants...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Committee
03 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
The Executive has stated that it intends to introduce the concept of the proper occupier to regulate crofts that have been bought and no longer have tenants. Have you considered the implications of such a move? Dr Balfour has suggested that, because the selling of crofts takes...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I am concerned that there should be a match between areas in which there is a demand for new crofts and the creation of a new supply of crofts. When we were in Argyll, we were told that there was huge demand from young people for crofts. One would hope that new crofts would be...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
14 Jun 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill
I will, in fact. I wish to pick up on what Jim Hunter said about whether it is realistic to expect the Crofters Commission to regulate for proper occupiers and to use the regulations. Various conditions have been set down for proper occupiers—we have, for example, spoken about...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Chamber
14 Sep 2005
Future of Crofting
All of us in the chamber are grateful to John Farquhar Munro for lodging the motion. The consultation on the draft Crofting Reform etc Bill has raised a number of issues and worries in crofting communities, as he and others outlined. John Farquhar Munro and Alasdair Morrison h...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Chamber
27 Sep 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
As other members have done—although some of them were somewhat churlish—I thank the minister and the deputy minister for agreeing to the committee's proposal to establish an inquiry into the future of crofting and the Crofters Commission's role. The desire for that was strongl...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
03 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I wish to ask some questions of the panellists from Shetland. I was quite struck that the submissions from Shetland—one from Shetland Islands Council and one from the Scottish Crofting Foundation for the Shetland area—are very different. The Crofting Foundation paper is negati...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Chamber
25 Jan 2007
Crofting Reform etc Bill
It is good to see the Crofting Reform etc Bill completing its passage through the Parliament.It is important that we have legislation that is fit for purpose, and the minister, the former deputy minister, the present deputy minister in her former role as convener of the Enviro...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
02 Nov 2005
Draft Crofting Reform Bill
You have talked about how the sale of crofts can be dampened down, but there also seems to be an open market in tenancies. I have seen croft tenancies on the Black Isle advertised at £50,000, £60,000 and £80,000. The perception is that there is perhaps not enough regulation or...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
24 Apr 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I want to move on a bit to ask about how demand for crofts interacts with demand for housing, how the planning system fits into that and how people would ideally like the planning system to work as regards the building of houses on croft land. Whose views should be paramount—t...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
Is the market value that is now perceived to be in crofts part of the problem in relation to people getting crofts? Some assignations now go for very high figures. Is that happening in this area?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I have one or two questions for Lorne MacLeod about his vision for what will happen on Gigha with the creation of the new crofts. I take it that the new crofts are not only for people who live on Gigha at the moment. I assume that you hope to attract other people on to the isl...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
We took evidence on Gigha about the situation there, and the idea was expressed that it would be good to attract people with other skills to newly created crofts. Might Argyll and the Islands Enterprise have a role to play when crofts are assigned? Would it be a good idea to d...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
You have told us how you have been dealing with absentee crofts and cases in which crofts are not being worked properly. Are you on top of the problem, or is there still a lot to do?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
The minister said that 900 people were on the waiting list for a croft and that there were plans to create 100 crofts in Shetland. What sort of total numbers are you considering and have you earmarked other places for the creation of new crofts?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 Nov 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 2
Amendments 1, 2 and 3 address the issue of compiling maps of crofts, which has been contentious. The committee thought that providing maps for inclusion in the register of crofts was long overdue, but that the Crofters Commission rather than crofters should shoulder the burden...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
22 Nov 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 2
Section 23 gives a crofter the right to make an application to the Land Court to be granted access over a neighbouring croft, if that croft is owned by his landlord. It has been pointed out to us that the provision is narrow. A lot of disputes about access are between crofters...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Chamber
24 Nov 1999
Land Reform
I welcome the opportunity to comment on the progress that has so far been made on land reform and the Executive's openness in lodging the motion for debate today. Land reform is not an empty gesture to members of the old Highland Land League or the Crofter's party MPs of the p...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Chamber
23 Jan 2003
Land Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3
I had not intended to make a speech at this point, but I tried—I think about six times—to intervene on Jamie McGrigor. There are many rivers—like those to which Jamie McGrigor referred—where there are no crofts. There are rivers in Sutherland along which there are no crofts at...
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Committee
03 Mar 2004
Nature Conservation (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2
As the committee knows, I have been concerned for a long time about the protection of our fossil heritage. Concerns about depredation of our fossils were raised with me first by members of the Caithness fossil group, who told me about the important fossil sites that unscrupulo...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 Mar 2006
Biomass Industry Inquiry
Will you expand on your policy on native woodlands? We have heard evidence about the possible use of native woodlands for short-rotation forestry because native trees such as birch can be ready for harvesting in seven to 10 years. Is there any room in that for the use of land ...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
19 Apr 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I want to pick up on what you said about agriculture being central to crofting. On the problem of absenteeism and crofts not being worked, we have received evidence to the effect that much absenteeism has been caused by people being unable to afford to croft as a result of not...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
24 Apr 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
As with the previous panel, I want to ask about the interaction in the Western Isles between the need for housing and the need for crofting to be affordable to new entrants. We have discussed how that might be done through stricter regulation of the system but, ideally, the pl...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
24 Apr 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
That is an interesting suggestion. There are all sorts of parallels to that in housing, such as the golden share in stakeholders housing or the legislation about pressured housing areas. Crofts should be protected in a similar way.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
03 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I want to follow up Ted Brocklebank's point. Other panellists, both here and in Stornoway, proposed that rural housing burdens, for example, could be used to protect crofts.
Maureen Macmillan (Highlands and Islands) (Lab): Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
What level of demand is there from local people for crofts in the crofting areas of Argyll and Lochaber?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
What about absenteeism? Are some crofts in Argyll not being worked, or is everybody who has a croft committed to crofting?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
So you hope that new crofts will be created, as is legislated for in the bill.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
Unless the crofters came to an agreement not to buy their crofts.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
Could a points system go some way to stopping the open market in crofts that we have been told exists?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
No; I was thinking about the type of person who might be given a crofting tenancy. Lorne MacLeod talked about attracting joiners, carpenters or plumbers to Gigha, which would require a kind of checklist. Could a checklist or points system be applied in other crofting communiti...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
08 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
We heard evidence about the need for crofters in Tiree to have several crofts—perhaps eight, nine, 10 or 11—in order to make a living, because of there being no other work available to them. It is not possible to work as a part-time crofter there. I was wondering about that. W...
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
I presume that your approach is to ensure that the absentee crofts are sublet.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
But what would happen if an estate gave up several thousand acres for crofting and 20, 30 or 40 crofts were created on it, then the crofters decided that they wanted to exercise the crofting community right to buy?
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
15 May 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
No, I was thinking of a situation in which a private landowner decided that he or she would allow new crofts to be created.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Committee
14 Jun 2006
Crofting Reform etc Bill
But the proper occupier proposal deals only with the market in owner-occupied crofts. There is also a market in non-family assignations. Have you considered registration to restrict that market? It does not seem to be restricted.
Maureen Macmillan: Lab Chamber
25 Jan 2007
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 3
I thank the minister for amendment 18, which will remove ambiguity from the definition of "crofting community". Will he confirm that two or more crofts that are in close geographical proximity constitute a township, given that the application of a more formal definition of a c...
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Committee

Environment and Rural Development Committee, 15 May 2006

15 May 2006 · S2 · Environment and Rural Development Committee
Item of business
Crofting Reform etc Bill: Stage 1
Macmillan, Maureen Lab Highlands and Islands Watch on SPTV
When we were in Oban last week, we heard evidence from the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust about what it is doing to create new crofts on Gigha and how it goes about choosing tenants for the crofts. The trust has a list of priorities or points that it marks off against applicants, such as whether they are local people or what else they have to offer to the community—for example, a carpenter or other skilled worker would gain more points. Perhaps local areas could have some sort of points system to help to choose the right people for crofts to be assigned to. I also want to ask about employment in general. We heard that people on Tiree have multiple crofts because there is no other work. If they do not have several crofts—up to eight, nine or 10 crofts—they cannot make a living. Surely HIE has a role in ensuring that other employment is created or encouraged in crofting areas—perhaps remote crofting areas—so that crofters receive income from other forms of work. Working a croft will not on its own make you very rich. I wonder whether the witness from HIE could comment on that.Could the witnesses from the crofting communities comment on how we might design a points system or otherwise prioritise the best people to tenant crofts?

In the same item of business

The Convener (Sarah Boyack): Lab
I welcome committee members, witnesses, members of the public and the press to this meeting of the Environment and Rural Development Committee, which is taki...
Mr Ted Brocklebank (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): Con
I have a question for Mr Maciver and Mr MacRae in the first instance. In his written submission, Mr Maciver stated:"I have commented on this bill on many occ...
Alistair Maciver (Scottish Crofting Foundation):
I have commented on the bill on a number of occasions, right from the early consultation stages, in a series of meetings with officials, and I am still not c...
Allan MacRae (Assynt Crofters Trust):
I welcome the opportunity to say something about the definition of "proper occupier". The truth is that, if someone is a tenant on croft land, their tenancy ...
Mr Brocklebank: Con
Thank you. Later we will hear from Shane Rankin, who will be able to respond to your points.The confusing thing for the committee is that we have asked these...
Allan MacRae:
This is obviously more complicated than it may seem. I would have thought that the commission had ample powers but lacked the will to use them in most cases.
Mr Brocklebank: Con
In your written submission, you say that, far from encouraging young people to remain in the crofting areas—especially in places such as Assynt—the bill, if ...
Allan MacRae:
Yes, if a person is allowed to assign their croft and market forces decide who gets it. Judging by what has been said to date, it seems that the Government w...
Mr Brocklebank: Con
Is that happening at the moment?
Allan MacRae:
Yes, and any new legislation should address the situation to stop it happening.
The Convener: Lab
Would Councillor Durham like to describe Highland Council's perspective?
Councillor Richard Durham (Highland Council):
Many strongly held views have been expressed. Within Highland Council, there is a fairly clear view that we live in a free-market world. There is a free mark...
Mr Alasdair Morrison (Western Isles) (Lab): Lab
You say that we live with a free market, but that you want regulation. How can the two concepts co-exist?
Councillor Durham:
I believe that they can co-exist.
Mr Morrison: Lab
How can you have a free market within a regulated system?
Councillor Durham:
The proper-occupier proposal means that—to take an extreme situation—someone from the south of England who has retired and sold up and who wishes to come and...
Mr Morrison: Lab
That merely regulates the purchase price, not the selling price. The council that you represent says "a system of regulated tenure requires to be firmly and ...
Councillor Durham:
The council's view is clear. The process has been very interesting for me. I am an Easter Ross farmer and I chair the council's land and environment select c...
The Convener: Lab
Would George Campbell like to come in?
George Campbell (Highlands and Islands Enterprise):
I am happy to give my view.The process has been interesting because it has brought to a head a discussion that has been going on for a long time. The right t...
Mr Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green): Green
Last week, the committee was in Oban, where we heard about the situation with the housing development in Taynuilt. There appeared to be a major mismatch betw...
George Campbell:
Housing is a perennial issue in the Highlands. As an economic development organisation, we find that the lack of affordable housing—or the lack of any housin...
Councillor Durham:
Crofting farming practice is carried out on fragile land. In developing housing, it is terribly important to protect the good land. We must take the view tha...
Mr Ruskell: Green
What about the process whereby local plans are drawn up with crofting communities? Perhaps Allan MacRae could tell us how the crofters in Assynt interface wi...
Allan MacRae:
That is part of the problem. Do planners listen to what crofting communities say? I agree entirely with Councillor Durham—a presumption should be made agains...
George Campbell:
I clarify that I was not for one moment advocating that it would be okay to develop housing on inby ground or arable ground; I was just trying to explain the...
Mr Ruskell: Green
What about the layer above that—the structure plan? I ask Richard Durham how crofting and the availability of crofting land and development land are reflecte...
Councillor Durham:
Our structure plan contains safeguards on that. In producing a new Wester Ross local plan recently, Highland Council undertook a consultation process with cr...
Mr Ruskell: Green
Is it right that the Crofters Commission, which has a development role in structure plans, should represent crofters' views? Should the communities represent...
Councillor Durham:
I suggest that both elements are needed. That depends on the shape of the Crofters Commission at the end of the bill process and, as it has been made clear t...