THE Scottish Land Court has ruled in favour of a family on Colonsay
who want to buy their croft and against the Laird of Colonsay, Lord
Strathcona and Mount Royal, who does not want to sell.
Lord Strathcona cannot prevent the purchase under the 1976 Crofting
Act but sought to keep control of development by laying claim to the few
feet of grass verge at the side of the public road and retaining the
ownership of the access road.
He is anxious to prevent holiday caravans and chalets appearing on the
island, although the estate has holiday properties.
The important test case concerns the Lawson family at Kilchattan. Mrs
Anne Lawson's father was from Mull and her mother from Islay. They took
over the Colonsay croft 30 years ago and it has remained in the family
since.
Mrs Lawson and her husband, Bill, sought help from the Scottish
Crofters' Union in April 1990. Its legal advice service established that
they had a case, and they pursued it despite the risk being financial
ruin if they failed.
The Land Court's findings published yesterday revealed that the estate
wanted to influence what it considered undesirable development,
including sites for caravans.
It maintained that the croft did not extend to the public road and
that the roadside verge should remain in estate ownership after sale of
the croft. ''Any wish by the new owner of the croft land to gain access
over such a strip would necessarily involve negotiation with the estate
and the possible 'exchange of money' to complete any bargain.''
The court had never heard such an argument. ''Similar situations exist
in all original crofting townships served by a common road since 1886
but it is the first time within our judicial knowledge that such a claim
to any 'verges' has been made.''
The court then considered whether Colonsay might be a special case, or
whether such a claim could be made anywhere in the crofting counties. In
Lewis, Harris, and the Uists it ''would be a virtual impossibility to
envisage the defining of narrow strips of land between the croft and the
roads''.
When these areas had come under crofting legislation there had been no
statutory exceptions for roadside verges and neither had there been on
Colonsay. ''We are of the opinion that, in this respect, Kilchattan was
no different from any other crofting community in the Highlands and
islands.''
The estate had not mentioned this unusual claim to the Crofters'
Commission when it had granted an earlier apportionment on the croft.
''Our opinion is therefore quite clearly that any verges (if they
exist) are in crofting tenure, being either common grazing or croft land
individually tenanted . . . If the verges are in crofting tenure he (the
landlord) no longer has the sole control.
''The crofter and her successors therefore have right of access at any
point along the public road into her croft, subject of course to the
necessary local authority permission.''
On the question of the access road, the court observed that there had
been evidence that Mrs Lawson and her brother had maintained and
upgraded the road over the years. There had been no evidence that the
estate had contributed to this.
The estate had argued that they had required to use this road or track
to maintain the water supply (now defunct) that it had installed. Since
the road gave access to other properties, it regarded it as estate
property.
The Land Court was unimpressed by this. ''There was no evidence of the
landlords having previously claimed that this was an estate road and in
the previous court application for determination of Fair Rents in 1976,
there was no claim that the access was provided by the landlords.''
The court did not accept the estate's case that access should be
restricted to domestic and agicultural purposes. It found that the
applicant should be granted ''free and unrestricted right of access for
all purposes over this track''.
Lord Strathcona could not be contacted yesterday but it is understood
that he is considering an appeal.
Mrs Lawson was delighted by the ruling. Her solicitor, Mr Derek Flyn,
of Inverness, said the question of costs had still to be decided..
Later editions of the Herald yesterday gave the decision of the Land
Court but not its detailed findings.
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