Call for more legal muscle in Bernera buy-out bid

An Isles MSP has called for “more legal muscle” in the forthcoming land reform bill to ensure one island community, Great Bernera, can buy their island from its absentee landowner, after a decade of trying.

Na h-Eileanan an Iar MSP Dr Alasdair Allan, speaking as a summit of community landowners was held in the Outer Hebrides last week, said residents of Great Bernera have been trying for a decade to mount their own community buyout to help stem depopulation, but have been “frustrated”.

In 1972, the islands of Great and Little Bernera were bought by Count Robin de la LanneMirrlees, whose wartime exploits in the Balkans were said to have partly inspired the character of James Bond in his friend Ian Fleming’s novels.

He died in 2012, leaving the islands to his grandson – Cyran de la Lanne – in Germany. In 2015, 85 per cent of Bernera’s residents voted in favour of a community buyout. In 2020, the Great Bernera Community Development Trust began the process of pursuing a crofting community buyout.

Ahead of the summit, Dr Allan said those acting for the landowner have so far have managed to resist Scotland’s land reform provisions designed to allow a crofting community buyout without the owner’s agreement.

Dr Allan said: “More needs to be done. The Scottish Government is committed to a Land Reform Bill during this Parliament. It’s simply not right that, in 2023, the ambitions of a community like Bernera have been indefinitely vetoed by an absentee landlord. If we want the right to buy to be a proper right for crofting communities, it does now need more legal muscle behind it.” At the summit on Lewis and Harris, 23 staff and directors from community-owned estates across Scotland gathered to share ideas.

Linsay Chalmers, development manager with a summit co-host Community Land Scotland (CLS), said: “With three quarters of people living on community land in the Outer Hebrides, the islands contain a wealth of knowledge about how to run a community-owned estate.

“In recent years, as community landownership has spread, we have an increasing number of members who can’t just look over the fence to see how their neighbouring community landowner is developing their estate.”

The participating communities, which included Colonsay, Great Bernera, Gigha, Rousay in Orkney, Garbh Allt in Sutherland, the Isle of Ulva, Galson Estate in Lewis and North Harris, own 137,000 acres of land between them, and a huge diversity of assets including affordable housing, wind turbines, and woodlands.

The three Argyll groups that attended – Gigha, Ulva and Colonsay – are at various stages in terms of running or delivering affordable housing projects.

Jane Millar, development manager for the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust, said: “The Gigha Trust has been established for 21 years, yet there is still always something we can learn from other communities.”

‘It’s not right that the ambitions of a community like Bernera have been indefinitely vetoed by an absentee landlord. If we want a proper right to buy, it needs more legal muscle behind it.’