An evening with Lesley Riddoch
Arran Community Land Initiative hosted an informal meeting with radio broadcaster and journalist, Lesley Riddoch, last Friday, keen to hear her views on their development of 80 acres of farmland in Whiting Bay for community use.
Lesley talked about the problems of land ownership in Scotland and the way the new Land Reform Act, currently being processed by Scottish parliament, is trying to redress the balance of half of Scotland being owned by fewer than 500 people.
Many economists see this to be holding back the country, as the statistic means Scotland has the most inequitable land ownership in the western world.
Lesley holds up Norway as a shining example of how a country can work well for the good of all, with their smaller council areas, which are a tenth of the Scottish average council by population size, serving their population better.
Income tax goes straight to the councils, with only higher earnings and corporation tax going to the central government.
Attendees came with accounts of valiant but unsuccessful efforts to redress Arran problems, most notably a lack of affordable housing which many fear will lead to younger people leaving the island, resulting in a severe shortage of people to look after the increasingly aging Arran population.
Lesley urged the initiative to get on with their proposals for renewable energy and community allotments and asked Arran to unite under common aims in order to counter the effects of the island becoming full of retirees, rather than an island with a population of a diverse range of ages, as a vibrant, self-sustaining and beautiful island is surely what all people on Arran want.
Arran Community Land Initiative thanked Lesley Riddoch for the enlightened talk and for Joni Keen, who runs the Altachorvie Island Retreat in Lamlash, for hosting the event at the last minute.