Response 23425585

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Entry to crofting

1.1. Do you agree that two people should be able to share a joint croft tenancy?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
This should not lead to endless subdivision of crofts, rendering them useless as working crofts.

Q1.2. Do you agree with the proposal that regulatory barriers that limit the ability of an owner-occupier to grant a standard security over their croft should be removed or reduced?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q1.3. Do you agree with the proposal that a tenant crofter should in principle be able to use their croft tenancy as security for a loan?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q1.4. Do you agree that there needs to be modifications to rights and responsibilities when a security is in place over a croft?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q1.5. Do you agree that if a croft tenancy is repossessed by a lender, the lender should be able to assign (sell) the tenancy on to a new tenant provided that either the landlord or the Crofting Commission agrees?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q1.6. Do you wish to add comments in regard to the proposed application of standard securities to crofts?

Please comment if you wish.
I would only support the ability to obtain a loan against a Croft tenancy if the Government acts as the sole guarantor and in the event of default the lender must sell the croft to the government for reassignment. Lenders selling these on the open market will obviously want to get maximum value from the croft as an asset which further erodes the whole system of crofting. Crofts and crofting exist to facilitate islanders, Gaels, being able to live and work in their community - they are not commercial assets.

Crofting communities

Q2.1. Do you agree that the right to object to applications should continue to be limited to crofters and grazings shareholders in the same township or grazings?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
The crofting community at large should be able to object.

Q2.2. Do you agree that when deciding a decrofting application, the Crofting Commission should, alongside other considerations, be required to weigh up the sustainability of crofting across the parish?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
There should always be a presumption against decrofting except where absolutely necessary. If crofting law and regulation were working as they should then the need for decrofting should be minimal.

Q2.3a. Would you support the extension of the right to report a suspected breach of duty to: a) Subtenants and short-term leaseholders of crofts within the local crofting community?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q2.3b. Would you support the extension of the right to report a suspected breach of duty to: b) Non-crofters who reside within the local community where the croft is situated?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q2.4. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should be empowered to determine the permitted method to be used for a public notice, and should be able to change the requirements from time to time?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q2.5. Do you agree that it should be possible for public meetings to be held on an appropriate online forum or as a hybrid meeting and need not be solely in-person meetings?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Use of common grazings

Q3.1. Do you agree that the grazings committee duty to report should be limited to the condition of the common grazings?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.2. Do you agree that meetings to appoint a grazings committee need to be notified publicly?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.3. Do you agree that shareholders should be responsible for informing their Grazings Committee of their preferred email or postal contact address?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.4. Is there a need for further legislation on the purchase of grazings rights, or should the details of each transaction be left to the parties as currently?

Please select one item
More legislation is required
Details can be left to the parties
Don't know
Please comment if you wish
Apportionment should be ended. Common Grazings are a benefit to those working their crofts. Individuals should not be able to parcel off parts of the common grazings for their own personal benefit. Far too much of current crofting law goes against the very founding principle of crofting.

Q3.5. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should enforce adherence to residency and land use duties for stand-alone grazings shares?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.6. If a grazings share is forfeited by someone who is in breach, which organisation should have the initial responsibility of finding a new shareholder?

Please select one item
Grazings committee
Landowner
Crofting Commission
Don't know

Q3.7. If none of the grazings committee, the landlord and the Crofting Commission can find a new shareholder for a vacant grazings share, do you agree that the share should be dissolved and absorbed by the current shareholders and grazings committee?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.8. Do you agree that the provisions which allow crofter-led and joint-venture forestry schemes should be extended and adapted, to provide similarly for peatland restoration schemes, biodiversity schemes, and other schemes relating to carbon sequestration, habitat restoration or environmental improvements?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.9. Do you agree that an owner who does not respond to a crofter or grazings committee application for forestry can be deemed to have consented (while retaining the right to make comments or objections at the next stage)?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.10. Do you agree that the assessment of crofter-led innovations on common grazings should parallel the arrangements for inbye land?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q3.11. Do you agree that a landowner should be able to apply to designate land as a new common grazing even if it is adjacent or contiguous to an existing croft?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Strengthening residency and land use

Q4.1. Do you agree that the first two stages in the current process for investigating suspected breaches of duty should be combined, in order to streamline the overall process?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
Enforcement needs to be much more stringent - this likely means greater investment and resourcing of the Crofting Commission alongside streamline of the overall process.

Q4.2. Do you agree that a crofter should not have to use or maintain their croft themselves, so long as they arrange for all the necessary and appropriate work to be carried out on their behalf?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q4.3. Do you agree that a tenant crofter should not have to obtain consent before making use of the croft for an activity that is environmentally beneficial?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q4.4. Do you agree that only natural persons should be able to become owner-occupier crofters?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
This should absolutely be the case. Much more needs to be done to end the system of "right to buy" - which mirrors the commercialisation and undermining of council housing - for croft land. There is presently very little practical difference in the sale of croft and freehold land on the open market. Too often crofts are posted for sale for prices far in excess of anything a reasonable local person looking to live and work in their community could afford. This is an affront to the ethos and purpose of crofting and must be brought under control.

Q4.5. Do you agree that where a company or charity is currently an owner-occupier crofter, the croft should require to be transferred to one or more natural persons, the next time it changes hands?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q4.6. Do you agree that we amend the Annual Notice requirement to at least once every three years, with the Crofting Commission entitled to choose how often and which years, subject to that constraint?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q4.7. Do you agree that if a subtenant is not meeting their statutory duties, the Crofting Commission should be entitled to terminate the sublet?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Enhanced Crofting Commission powers

Q5.1. Do you agree that assignations should only require prior approval if the landlord raises an objection or if the incoming crofter already holds three or more holdings in the Register of Crofts?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.2. Do you agree that transfer of owner-occupier crofter status should be subject to a Crofting Commission decision, in cases where the purchaser already holds 3 or more holdings in the Register of Crofts?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.3. Do you agree that sublets should only require prior approval if the landlord raises an objection?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.4. Do you agree that each incoming assignee and owner-occupier crofter should be required to confirm, at the next Census or within 2 years of taking up the croft, whether they are complying with duties?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.5. If you wish, please comment on your answers to Q5.1 to Q5.4.

I feel that each incoming assignee and owner-occupier crofter should be required to confirm that they are complying with duties at the next Census or within *1 year* of taking up the croft.

There absolutely must be regulatory controls over the transfer of owner-occupier crofter status.

Q5.6. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should be given the power to correct the status of croft owners who deserve owner-occupier status?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.7. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should have the power to adjust croft boundaries, on an application by all the parties, where those parties are in agreement?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.8. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should be able to correct errors in its Directions and Orders where the case for doing so is clear?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.9. When considering a decrofting application, do you agree that the Crofting Commission should consider whether the applicant is complying with their statutory crofting duties, such as being resident and cultivating the croft?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
There should definitely be increased scrutiny on decroftings and absolute limits to the number of decroftings on a single croft. There should be a general presumption against decrofting as a matter of principle and this should only be permitted where there is a good reason for it in facilitating the active use of the croft land.

Q5.10. When considering a decrofting application, do you agree that the Crofting Commission should consider whether the croft has received previous decrofting applications?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know
Please comment if you wish.
There should be a limit to the number of decrofting applications permitted on any one croft.

Q5.11. Do you agree that the Crofting Commission should be able to use administrative sanctions where there is a regulatory breach?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.12. If you answered yes to Q5.11, do you agree that the Crofting Commission should be able to revoke approval or decline to deal with applications?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.13. If you answered yes to Q5.11, do you consider that any other type of administrative sanction should be available as well as, or instead of, a power to revoke approvals or consider applications?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.14. Do you have any suggestions for how we split the number of Commissioners between elected and appointed?

Please comment if you wish.
While I strongly support the requirement for appointed commissioners to speak Gaelic, and the language should be promoted and encouraged much more both by, and within the organisation - I do think the number of elected commissioners should be greater than those appointed.

I support limiting the number of times that a commissioner can be elected to two terms but feel this should be consecutively and that someone who has previously served their two terms may wish to return for a further term later. I would be concerned about the capacity within the community if many of its members were excluded by having previously served on the commission.

Q5.16. Should anyone who has twice previously been elected as a Crofting Commissioner be able to stand again in another crofting election?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Q5.17. Should voter eligibility operate on the same basis as for the previous three elections?

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Yes
No
Don't know

Simplifying crofting

Q6.1. Do you agree that we should extend the powers of the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland for correcting errors in the Crofting Register?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q6.2. Do you agree that all registration applications should be copied to the relevant landlord, in order to allow the landlord to comment if he or she chooses to do so?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q6.3. Do you agree that the purchase of title to a croft by a tenant crofter should be a trigger for registration in the Crofting Register?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q6.4. Do you agree that owner-occupiers should be required to give the same personal information for the Register of Crofts as tenants?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q6.5. Do you agree that the deadlines for these four particular types of decision should be removed from the legislation?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

Q6.6. Do you agree that where all the crofters and owners of the land in question, wish to set up a permanent crofting right of access, they should be entitled to do so?

Please select one item
Yes
No
Don't know

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