Why a £300k land buyout is just the job

CAMPAIGNERS are hailing the creation of their area’s first new job in a century after a £300,000 land buyout.

The Garbh Allt Community Initiative (GACI) has bought the 3,000-acre West Helmsdale crofting estate in Sutherland after the deal was finalised this week.

GACI chairman Anne Fraser said it had taken nearly two years to achieve the purchase and plans were already under way to improve the area.

She said: ‘We are delighted that the process to buy the land has come to fruition.

‘We have a part-time development officer who is ready to start work officially with us – that is the first job created in the initiative area for about 100 years, and we see this as being just the start.

‘There is a lack of employment in the Helmsdale area so we are looking at ways that we can build jobs into the management of our land.’

The area covered by the buyout is made up of a majority of croft land in the areas of Marrel, West Helmsdale, Gartymore and Portgower.

Miss Fraser added: ‘We have hatched plans, having consulted the community in the first instance, that will allow us to develop the area to make it self-sustaining.

‘We have plans to improve the land and infrastructure, as well as working to make the area a more attractive place to live.’