Convener refuses to resign after walking out of meeting
SCOTLAND’S crofting regulatory body is in disarray after its convener walked out of a meeting and his fellow commissioners called for his resignation in his absence.
However, Colin Kennedy says that the pressure he has been put under by the Scottish Government to ignore breaches of crofting law, has been to the detriment of his health. But he will not resign.
In his absence, the Crofting Commission also issued a statement apologising to the local crofting communities, particularly on Lewis, following the long-running dispute over the management of common grazings’ finances.
Mr Kennedy had been prominent in this wrangle, which had seen two local grazings committees sacked by the commission, and replaced by “constables”.
It was reported that last week Cabinet Secretary for Rural Economy and Connectivity Fergus Ewing had told the commission to apologise for its conduct in the row.
The commission was meeting in Brora, Sutherland, yesterday and issued a statement: “Shortly after the start, commission convener Colin Kennedy closed the meeting and left.
“The remaining commissioners decided to continue with business and hold a special meeting to work through the agenda. A motion was accepted at that meeting requesting the convener to tender his resignation.
“A statement apologising to crofters over recent grazings cases in Lewis and Lochaber was read out and the commission will now formally respond to the Cabinet Secretary, Fergus Ewing.”
The commission stated that the decisions which led to the sacking of the grazings committees “have created a poor result for everyone involved.
“The actions taken in these cases did not enable communities to work together for the benefit of crofting and in fact have had an adverse impact on the crofting community.
“The commission acknowledges that the recent decisions have caused prolonged uncertainty and anxiety not only for the three communities involved but for all crofters, and for this we are sorry.”
Crofting Minister Fergus Ewing last week asked the commission to rescind its decisions to dismiss grazings committees and apologise to crofters.
There are more than 1,000 common grazings covering tens of thousands of acres of land across Scotland, according to the Crofting Commission.
Grazing committees manage these areas of land and their members are elected by crofters.
The commission’s apology was read at the board meeting. It will form part of a response to Mr Ewing’s request that a public apology be made.
Mr Kennedy, who was one of the six commissioners directly elected by crofters, told the Herald “I have not resigned. My health has suffered in the recent weeks having been put under ridiculous pressure by the Scottish Government minister responsible, and his cohorts.
“They want me to sweep matters of crofting law under the carpet, because they are inconvenient politically. I refused to do that.”
But the chairwoman of the Scottish Crofting Federation, the crofters’ representative body, Fiona Mandeville said: “Surely now the convener will do what he should have done weeks ago – stand down and let the people who genuinely care about crofting get on with their work. So much time and energy has been wasted during this inexcusable debacle.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We note that the Crofting Commission Board has today issued a public apology about recent events. The Scottish Government will continue to work with the Crofting Commission and will monitor the situation closely.” THE widow of a Falklands War veteran has described her feelings as “overwhelmingly fantastic” after winning a bid at the High Court in London to keep frozen embryos the couple created.
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