BBC Open Country investigated Gigha
IS LIFE on the Isle of Gigha a dream or nightmare? That was the premise of a BBC Radio 4 reporter who voyaged to God’s Isle last month.
Open Country’s Ian Marchant had always longed to visit the Inner Hebridean island.
While there he interviewed islanders including: Tony Philpin of the Coast and Countryside group; Don Dennis; Alasdair McNeill, whose family were once lairds of the island; island shop-keeper Joe Teale and Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust (IGHT) manager Elaine Morrison.
In the blurb for Mr Marchant’s 24-minute investigation his producer, Mary Ward-Lowery wrote: ‘For a writer and hippie like Ian, it sounds like a dream: an island owned and run by its own community of fewer than 170 people.
‘No more exploitative or neglectful landlords; everyone has a say in how things are done and they all live happily ever after. But also, no more wealthy and benevolent landlords, no more cash injections when things get tough.
‘It’s a dream - or a nightmare - that has come true on the Scottish island of Gigha.
‘In 2001 the islanders took their destiny into their own hands and made a successful bid to buy the island.’
Two of Mr Marchant’s interviewees, Mr McNeill and Mr Teale, hold differing views about the wisdom of the buy-out which has been held up as a model of community ownership.
Mr McNeill, the current IGHT interim chairman, told the nation that the islanders should not have completed the buy-out.
He said: ‘We never had any real bad landlords. I personally would rather have a benevolent dictator than this so-called democracy we have.
‘I voted against [the buyout]. Not that I didn’t want the island, I wanted it very much. But I knew that it would be difficult, there would be great difficulty in running the place. We still have a lot to pay back yet. It’s not utopia.’
‘I’ve lived all over the world and there’s nowhere better than Gigha on a summer’s day. People come and think ‘Ah, I want to live here’.
‘But then the winter comes and the gales come and the rain comes and they can’t get off the island, or they can’t get back on. And this is where their idea of utopia changes and they get bitter.
‘I would try and bring in young people. Without children we have nothing.
‘We need children so we have teachers and people get educated, and then come back and get some good business going.
‘The people that come into the island... we need them to have jobs.’
Mr Teale, who owns Ardminish Stores, says that the buyout has been a success.
‘Without question, the buyout has been a good thing,’ he said, ‘We’ve got B and Bs that can flourish, we’ve got a restaurant, we’ve got more kids in our school.
‘People are able to buy and own their own houses for the first time.
‘We’ve spent about £4m improving, insulating and upgrading the homes that the IGHT owns.
‘You can’t say that private ownership of land is exclusively bad, because it isn’t.
‘But there was a sustained period of under-investment in the fabric of this island.
‘Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
‘Without doubt there’s more squabbling, more infighting, perhaps more cliquey aspects to living here than there was prior to the formation of the trust. But you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth.’
The programme broadcast last month is available as a podcast at: http://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes/b09qhbt6