Pagans seek blessing for festivals... from council

THEY are time-honoured ceremonies which have been performed for thousands of years.

But now a group of Scottish Pagans have been stalled in their bid to practise their faith by the modern problem of council red tape.

The group say they feel they have been forced to apply for a ‘certificate of lawfulness’ before they can hold gatherings on a patch of unused land.

The 15-strong group hope to use land on the edge of Monikie, near Dundee, for eight festivals on the Pagan calendar.

Jan Steel, who owns the land, said she felt she had been ‘forced’ into making the formal planning bid to Angus Council because of the Pagan link.

Mrs Steel said: ‘This is a waste of a piece of ground; it has sat for more than 40 years and we wanted to do something with it.’

She added: ‘The reason I felt I had to go for a certificate of lawfulness was that whenever we were on it we felt like we were being watched. I didn’t want there to be any problem because we don’t know who might jump out of the bushes.’

The planning bid will be decided in April.

Pagans have no buildings set aside for worship and ceremonies take place in a variety of outdoor locations.

In the 2011 census, 5,282 people in Scotland identified as Pagan.

The Scottish Pagan Federation became a recognised religious body authorised to nominate Celebrants to conduct legal Pagan marriages in Scotland in 2004.