Crofting campaign - Chuck the Charges

Highlands and Islands Labour has launched a campaign to try to stop the SNP
Government from imposing crippling new charges on crofters.
The Scottish Government is planning to charge crofters fees to
register their crofts on a compulsory new map based crofting
register, something many see no need to do as they are already
registered with the Crofters Commission. The costs could be as
much as £1,000 a crofter when all the different elements - a
fee to the Keeper of Registers, paying for a newspaper advert
for two weeks, hiring a surveyor to draw up a detailed map,
defending your register entry in the Land Court if your
declared boundaries are challenged – are included.
In addition, the new Crofting Commission is to be given powers
to charge crofters for regulatory applications that have
previously been free throughout crofting's history. The table
of possible charges has been set out in the financial memoranda
to the new bill. Some could amount to several thousand pounds.
The `Chuck the Charges' campaign is being spearheaded by
Highlands and Islands Labour MSP Peter Peacock, together with
all the General Election Labour Candidates in the crofting
counties. In a simultaneous launch across the Highlands and
Islands, Labour politicians joined forces
to condemn the SNP's new charging regime.
Peter Peacock said: “Crofting has survived for nearly 150 years
with no charges and the first SNP government in that time now
wants to impose them. It is wrong in principle to charge
crofters for the `privilege' of being regulated when it is
Parliament's down the ages that have required this regulation,
which does not affect any other agricultural community.
Crofting is in a poor economic condition and crofters need
financial incentives to stay in crofting, not financial penalties.
“The SNP Government seems determined to impose charges which
have never been charged before and that will be damaging to the
crofting community. This is the latest in a line of attacks on
the interests of crofting. We urge people to sign up to an e
petition we are launching, to show how they feel about the new
charges."
He added: “We will fight these charges in Parliament. Remember
the SNP government abolished the Bull Hire scheme, but after a
show of strength by crofters they backed down and dropped the
policy. If that can be done once, we can try to do it again.”
Labour’s Orkney and Shetland prospective candidate Mark Cooper said,
“The SNP Government is opening the door to charge crofters for
services provided by the new Crofting Commission. These charges
could include not only charging for registration of the croft
but for various services that the current Crofters Commission
provides for free.
“In the current economic climate the last thing crofters need
is these excessive charges for unnecessary bureaucracy. It’s
time to back crofters, not charge them. Crofters should be free
to get on with what they do best – working our land and
maintaining it for future generations, not have to worry about
where to find money to go about their business.
"Crofting is vital to Orkney and Shetland and we want to send a
clear message to the Scottish Government - ‘Chuck the Charges’!
Mr Cooper added."The General Election offers the opportunity
for crofters across the islands to show their displeasure at
the SNP government's proposals - I hope they will take that
opportunity."
The `Chuck the Charges' e-petition can be accessed at www.chuckthecharges.org.uk