Communities protected by the buy
SOURCE: PRESS AND JOURNAL, MAY 2005
Communities all over Scotland are venturing on self-preservation schemes as they exercise right-to-buy laws to gain control over land and buildings. Worried about the changes that could be brought about by developers, communities are seeking to snap up old cinemas, playgrounds and anything else they consider might pose a threat to their traditional way of life if falling into what they consider to be the wrong hands. Bernard Bale investigates the battle for ownership.
Local people are mobilising in various parts of Scotland in a bid to prevent developers from threatening their way of life. Under legislation, they are exercising their right to buy all kinds of premises and pockets of land.
As always when there are conflicting interests between local residents and others, controversy is never far away.
Roland Smyth, of law firm Semple Fraser, has become an expert in the right-to-buy regulations and believes we have seen a shift in power from those developers with seemingly unlimited funds to small groups of residents who are using the law to combat changes which they believe will rip the heart out of their communities.
"The community right to buy - from what we can tell - stemmed from the perceived outrages of absentee landlords owning large tracts of rural land in Scotland," said Roland.
"Now, however, we are seeing it being exercised to other very different ends. For example, at the site of RAF Buchan air base, the MoD decided to downgrade RAF Buchan and wished to sell the domestic site at the base and a nearby playing field and pavilion."
"They felt it best to sell to a commercial developer to protect the long-term sustainability of the site, but the local Boddam community thought differently and successfully registered a right to buy, claiming not just to the playing fields and pavilion, but to the domestic site at the air base, which included single living accommodation, messes, offices, a gymnasium, a community centre, a guardroom, stores, a medical centre and a transport maintenance facility."
"The final picture didn't see the community progress with the entire purchase but, nonetheless, this wasn't quite the 'quaint village green' most folk thought the community right to buy would be used to save."
"In March this year, campaigners in Kelso were planning to use the community right to save their local cinema from property developers - leaving Scottish landowners wondering quite what kind of property will be next in the frame."
"It makes one wonder what is next and where does the balance of power lie now?"
A Wester Ross community was granted its wish to buy 44,000 acres of a millionaire family's Highland estate - and now needs to raise the necessary £2.9million. Scottish ministers gave permission for the Assynt Foundation to buy Drumrunie Forest, Glencanisp Forest and Glencanisp Lodge under the community right-to-buy provisions of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act. Meanwhile, an application by the Coigeach Community Company to buy Drumrunie Forest was rejected.
Deputy Rural Development Minister Lewis Macdonald said he believed single management of the three pieces of land would deliver a more co-ordinated approach that would benefit the Assynt area. He said:
"Giving communities control over the way their land is managed gives them greater power to shape their own futures and provides real rights and opportunities to help them realise their economic ambitions."
Bill Ritchie, the acknowledged architect of the Assynt Crofters Trust buyout 12 years ago, said:
"I never dreamed that I would get two shots at it. It is a historic triumph for democracy. The people of Scotland voted for land reform and the people of Assynt voted overwhelmingly to use it."
The community's ambitions focus on creating employment by developing the lodge, deer stalking and management; enhancing angling opportunities; expanding woodland, and providing opportunities for locals in eco-tourism businesses, crofting and other businesses, as well as educational projects.
Those are just some aspects of the gathering right-to-buy movement among Scotland's communities.
At Kelso, the community hopes to secure the Roxy Cinema. They want to prevent the cinema being converted into flats. The Land Reform (Scotland) Act means they can buy the land the building stands on, rather than the theatre itself.
The law states that there must be a willing seller and the Roxy is already on the market. The criteria say there must be a population of less than 10,000 for the law to apply and Kelso has about 6,000.
Any proposal put forward under the new legislation must also prove it will benefit the local community.
Campaigner Colin McGrath said:
"I want to save the Roxy Cinema as an entertainment centre for Kelso and the Land Reform Act gives us the unique opportunity to put our stamp on it.
You can also get grants by using the act as well and it's something that has never been done from this point of view."
Scottish landowners must be wondering where will it all end, especially since other avenues of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act mean that crofting communities have been given much more freedom to buy their own land rather than simply being eternal tenants. With the land goes mineral and fishing or hunting rights.
"There is no doubt that the new law has made for many attitude changes," said Roland Smyth.
"What makes it all the more exciting is that a community can legally state an interest in a property even before it is for sale. They then have to be given first refusal if it becomes available for purchase."
"That will raise the temperature somewhat, but the whole point of the law is to protect local communities and their facilities."
"The cinema is a great example. Many small towns have lost their only cinema or some other local facility when the property is sold for development as housing or supermarket. While there may be nothing wrong with the advancement of the area, it is a shame to see it achieved at the cost of local facilities."
"Of course, when a property becomes available to a community, it is sold purely as the property, not as a business, so nobody can take advantage of any sort of scam. This applies to virtually any kind of property. If an RAF base could be sold off locally then it must be said that churches, community centres, surgeries, small hospitals and a wide range of other properties could also be in the frame."
"It is still early days, but this aspect of the right-to-buy laws could prevent many small towns from becoming little more than residential satellites of major cities."
Right-to-buy has been around for a while in the form of enabling council-house tenants to become homeowners and, more recently, to enable crofters to take over the property on which they have been living and working.
Now there is the chance for communities to safeguard their local facilities and even improve upon them.
Not only is the new legislation safeguarding the future of many small communities, but it is rekindling the spirit of fraternity and mutual interest within those communities.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: ROLAND SMYTH