and promotes the interests of crofting in Scotland
to secure the future of crofting.
Crofting Commission welcomes Land Court decision
09/11/2016
The Crofting Commission welcomes a decision made by the Scottish Land Court on 13 October 2016 to refuse an appeal by Mr & Mrs MacGillivray against the Commission’s refusal of their application to decroft land on their croft at 37 North Ballachulish for a housing development.
This decision is significant as planning permission had been granted for a housing development on the croft.
Vice-Convener of the Crofting Commission, I G Macdonald, explains:
“This was one of the first cases considered by the current Commission when we were elected into office in 2012.
“The decrofting application was made prior to the implementation of the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 at which time our predecessor, the Crofters Commission, had felt obliged to approve applications for decrofting where there was planning permission in place.
“The Commission decided that approving the decrofting of a large part of the croft would have had a substantially detrimental impact on the crofting community at North Ballachulish. In the Commission’s view, this outweighed the public interest in a proposed development that had been granted planning permission.
“The Land Court confirmed the Commission's decision which underlines the importance of taking into account the impact to local crofting communities when considering such decrofting applications.”
