…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Introduction One of the Smith Commission agreements was that responsibility for the management and revenues of the Crown Estate in Scotland should be devolved to the Scottish Parliament. (1) This Agreement reflected the widespread consensus in Scotland that the management
Continue readingImage: Aileen McLeod MSP speaking at conference on Scottish Land and Estates. This month, the Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Aileen McLeod MSP gave two significant speeches. The first was on 19th May to the Annual Meeting
Continue readingImage: Badinloskin, Sutherland This is the Keynote Address by Professor James Hunter given to the Community Land Scotland Annual Conference, New Drumossie Hotel, Inverness, 21 May 2015. James Hunter In September 2009, the best part of six years ago, I was opening
Continue readingDick Balharry, one of Scotland’s foremost naturalists died today. Last week, in Glen Feshie, he was awarded the Geddes Environment Medal for a lifetime’s achievement in environmental work by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (pictured above). I am grateful to
Continue readingScottish Land and Estates, the organisation that represents some landowners in Scotland, attracted a fair bit of press coverage last month for their claim that potential reforms to Scotland’s agricultural tenancy laws could leave the Scottish Government open to compensation
Continue readingGuest Blog by Dr Helen Armstrong Wild deer in Scotland belong to no-one – in legal terms they are res nullius. Yet this public resource has traditionally been managed exclusively by the owners of land. How to ensure the public
Continue readingThe Scottish Government has announced the remit and membership of the Commission on Local Tax reform. I am very pleased to have been nominated as a member of the Commission on Local Tax Reform and look forward to meeting the other
Continue readingGuest Blog by Fred Harrison, Land Research Trust. Scotland’s First Minister has created an awkward rod for her political back. Her attack on the Coalition Government’s “austerity” policies renders the SNP vulnerable to its enemies in Westminster. Speaking in London on
Continue readingThe attempts by South Cowal Community Development Company (SCCDC) to acquire Castle Toward in Argyll have attracted widespread media attention. See reports here and here as examples. Last week I was sent an email by one of those behind the acquisition.
Continue reading“I’m deeply dismayed that this issue has been re-opened again. I can understand that there are always going to be some people who object to large-scale landownership but we felt that that was dealt with at the time of the
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