Community buyout could be saved from ruin...by landowner
IT was hailed as a landmark victory for ordinary people over wealthy landowners.
In a high-profile community buyout, residents used land reform laws to force the millionaire Vestey family to sell them two estates.
But the struggling buyout could now be rescued from bankruptcy – by the Vesteys.
Since 2004, the Assynt Foundation, the group which runs the Glencanisp and Drumrunie Estates in Sutherland, has received millions in loans and grants from the public purse.
However, recent accounts show it is facing financial collapse.
Now the community is considering a deal that would earn thousands of pounds a year – by leasing swathes of land back to the Vesteys for shooting.
It means that, despite high hopes the buyout would transform patterns of land use, it could soon be making money through country sports and the private wealth of the Vesteys.
Yesterday, former owner Robin Vestey confirmed he had made an offer to the ‘struggling’ Assynt Foundation to lease the shooting rights for thousands of acres.
A Foundation spokesman confirmed it was considering the proposal and would make a decision in the coming weeks.
The Glencanisp and Drumrunie Estates – which include the spectacular mountains Suilven and Canisp – were owned for 70 years by the Vestey family, which made a vast fortune in the meat trade.
Much of the 44,000 acres are bog or under water, but the land came with Glencanisp Lodge, estate cottages and 2,000 deer for stalking.
When the family tried to sell the estates, the then Scottish Executive blocked the sale to allow a community bid to take place.
The 2005 buyout – a £2.9 million deal funded by donations, Government money and lottery funds – was hailed as a major victory for the land reform movement.
But the Foundation has been dogged by financial woes. It moved away from shooting and culled more than half the deer to allow woodland to regenerate.
The lodge received a £1.25 million publicly funded makeover to target the wedding venue market.
But in the most recent accounts, auditors said there was ‘material uncertainty which may cast doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern’.
The 2016-17 accounts show a loss of £74,000 – the seventh consecutive year without profit – despite receiving £46,000 of public money.
Mr Vestey confirmed he was in talks, saying: ‘It was a suggestion we made because we knew there were some issues they were struggling with. They agreed to consider it and, I think, other options that may present themselves.
‘They are working very hard to make the estate sustainable.’
Foundation chief executive Gordon Robertson said: ‘We are moving away from foreign people coming to shoot deer to more wildlife tourism and native tourism.
‘One of the options was our neighbours, the Vesteys. One option may be that we let the stalking, not necessarily to the Vesteys, but to the highest bidder.’
He added: ‘The Foundation has been supported for a long time by Government grants. We don’t want to be in that position. We want to say, “We are self-sustaining and now we are putting it back”.’
‘Issues they were struggling with’