Executive in Crofting Bill climbdown
Inquiry will look at crofting issues after controversial clauses dropped from bill
The Scottish Executive has bowed to pressure over controversial aspects of its Crofting Reform Bill by agreeing to drop key sections pending an inquiry into crofting issues.
The bill will still provide for new crofts to be created without a right to buy, crofting tenure beyond the seven "crofting counties", and an end to interposed leases, a device to circumvent crofting community rights.
However proposals to redefine the powers of the Crofters Commission will be shelved pending a wide-ranging inquiry into crofting matters.
Critics feared the provisions would lead to a free market in crofting tenancies, threatening the crofting way of life, although the Executive insisted they would have the opposite effect.
The Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, in its report on the bill published in July, called for the Crofters Commission provisions to be scrapped.
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