Unsung Heroine
Following my post yesterday, it is great to see Heather Brooke on the cover of the Guardian’s G2 supplement today. Her story is a fascinating (but all too brief) account of the efforts she had to go to to secure
Continue readingScottish landowners living in fear
According to this report, [dead link – Nov 2023] Scottish landowners are living in fear. On closer inspection, it appears that Oliver Russell, the husband of the owner of Ballindalloch Estate, made some remarks at a dinner party at which,
Continue readingMPs’ Expenses
Much of what has been exposed on the topic of MPs’ expenses is trivial. What is not trivial is the extent to which MPs have time and time again claimed in their defence that everything that they did was within
Continue readingMPs’ expenses and Freedom of Information
Amidst all the justifiable anger over the revelations of MPs’ expenses it is worth remembering that we owe our knowledge of these issues not to the Daily Telegraph, not to the person who leaked them and certainly not to the
Continue readingCommunity Right to Buy 13 May 2009
Well, I’ve just watched the proceedings of the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee and there was quite a bit of discussion about the proposed new Regulations (see yesterday’s post). Thanks to Peter Peacock and Liam McArthur in particular for probing
Continue readingCommunity Right to Buy Regulations
The Community Right to Buy provisions contained in Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, came into force on 14 June 2004. If a community wishes to register an interest in land they can apply to Scottish Ministers
Continue readingAgricultural Tenant Registrations Reach 1000
On Tuesday 27 January, the number of registrations [Note this register is currently unavailable online – Nov 2023] by agricultural tenants under the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 2003 reached 1000. This is a very signifcant milestone as it means that there are 1000
Continue readingThe Right Future for the King’s Park
Stirling Council seem intent on pursuing a costly proposal to transfer ownership of Crown land in the King’s Park and around Stirling Castle to a public trust at a cost of £600,000. Following the transfer of 26 other historic properties to the Secretary
Continue readingKing’s Park, Stirling
There’s a bit of a rumpus in Stirling over plans by the Crown Estate Commission to sell the King’s Park to a (yet to be established) public trust for £600,000 (see the Herald story today). The King’s Park is an
Continue readingMoscow to Edinburgh Cycle
We (Cathy, daughther Isla and myself) are now back from Ethiopia and on Monday 30 June heading by train and boat via Paris, Berlin and Helsinki to Moscow from where we are cycling back to Edinburgh (we actually start in
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