Concerns at compulsory purchase expansion

Plans ‘risk undermining relationships between farming and forestry sectors’

Farm and landowners groups yesterday voiced their opposition to the Scottish Government’s plans to expand the use of compulsory purchase for “sustainable developments” as described in the Forestry and Land Management (Scotland) Bill.

Representatives of NFU Scotland (NFUS) and Scottish Land and Estates (SLE) gave evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s rural economy and connectivity committee and both groups rejected the need for any compulsory purchase powers, far less their extension.

SLE chairman Lord David Johnstone said that compulsory purchase for forestry was a mechanism that hadn’t been used for half a century.

“It therefore seems completely unnecessary to roll this over, and extend it to include land for sustainable development purposes, when cooperation rather than legal conflict should be the route to achieving the best future for forestry and the management of other public land in Scotland,” he said.

“We are concerned that the Bill is very light on definition and the real detail will come later in secondary legislation without proper parliamentary oversight.

“For example, we want to see a definition of sustainable forest management provided on the face of the Bill, not left to accompanying guidance.”

The tricky balance between farming and forestry was also highlighted by NFUS which said provisions for compulsory purchase ran the risk of undermining relationships between the farming and forestry sectors.

After giving evidence to the committee, the union’s deputy director of policy, Andrew Bauer, said NFUS agreed with the Scottish Law Commission that Scottish compulsory purchase legislation was not fit for purpose.

“Compulsory purchase powers are already an option to overcome ‘ransom strips’ to allow forestry to be managed and harvested,” he said.

“NFUS believes that the major expansion proposed in the Bill could potentially see them applied in a much wider range of circumstances – perhaps to allow renewable energy and tourism developments and to facilitate community ownership of land.

“However positive the intentions behind the proposal, the severe shortcomings of the compulsory purchase process and ‘blank cheque’ that ‘furthering the achievement of sustainable development’ represents, means that NFU Scotland is opposed to the proposed expansion in these powers.”

In its written evidence to the committee, the union said many members who had land acquired by compulsory purchase as part of the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route project had reported issues with compensation payments and the behaviour of contractors.

Picture: Getty Images. Compulsory purchase for forestry is a mechanism that has not been used for half a century, says Scottish Land and Estates chairman Lord David Johnstone.