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SUMMARY OF PRESENT POSITION REGARDING COMMUNITY BUYOUT OF PAIRC ESTATE

Pairc Trust, the duly constituted crofting community body mandated by the Pairc community to buy the Pairc Estate on behalf of the local community, have made three applications to the Scottish Government under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003:

• An application in May 2005 following a positive ballot held in November 2004. This application, which had been overtaken by events, was eventually turned down by the Government in March 2011.

• Two new applications made in February 2010 following a positive ballot held in December 2009 – one to buy land, and another to buy the interest of the tenant in an associated lease, on the Pairc Estate. These were approved by the Government in March 2011.

All the Part 3 applications were confined to common grazings on the Pairc Estate because of the difficulty of mapping the in-bye land.

The landlord appealed against the Government’s decisions to approve our 2010 applications in April 2011. As a result, the Government suspended the independent valuation which they had commissioned. Part of the landlord’s appeal – relating to the Government’s legal right to pass the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 - has been referred to the Court of Session, while part – relating to the particular details of our applications, including the December 2009 ballot – remains to be heard in the Stornoway Sheriff Court once the Court of Session has reached a judgement. We do not have a timetable for resolution of this legal dispute between the landlord and the Government.

Meanwhile, Pairc Trust have entered into discussion with the landlord regarding a possible voluntary (or ‘amicable’) estate transfer. This has always been our preferred outcome if a satisfactory agreement – which would need to be endorsed by the community – could be reached. A potential advantage of this approach is that the community buyout might extend beyond the common grazings which are subject to our Part 3 applications. It might also be a quicker route to achieving community ownership. Recent discussions have centred on a draft Heads of Terms setting out procedures leading to a valuation and a timetable for a possible amicable estate transfer. No agreement has yet been reached. If significant developments take place, we will issue another statement at the earliest opportunity.

Pending further developments, we are continuing our fund-raising campaign towards the purchase price of the estate and the cost of initiatives we plan in the first few years following purchase. To date, we have raised over £17,000 and further donations are welcome. We are also in touch with funding bodies so that a community buyout can proceed once a purchase price is known – either under Part 3 or through an amicable estate transfer. Big Lottery Fund approved a Stage 1 application to their Growing Community Assets fund earlier this year.

Pairc Trust
22nd November 2011

PAIRC COMMUNITY BUYOUT FUND - DONATE HERE

Pairc is a disadvantaged rural area in the south-east corner of the island of Lewis, consisting largely of rough moorland, a large number of lochs, a rugged coastline, and 11 crofting townships. The population today is around 400, compared with nearly 2,000 a century ago. The decline is mainly due to continuous emigration throughout the 20th century as people left for better opportunities elsewhere. While there are signs that the balance of the population may be beginning to change, the area is still characterised by an elderly age structure. The majority of people speak Gaelic.

These 400 people live on the Pairc Estate, an area of over 26,000 acres, which has been controlled since the 1920s (through Pairc Crofters Ltd and more recently Pairc Renewables Ltd) by the Lomas family – of whom the leading member today is Barry Lomas, an accountant living in Leamington Spa. There is no Estate property in the area, and over the last 85 years the Estate has not created one local job. Estate management can best be described as passive until the last decade when plans for a large commercial wind-farm in conjunction with SSE have been developed.

The Pairc Trust, a charitable organisation, were formed in 2004 with a mandate from the local community to buy the Estate on their behalf, and also to maximise community benefit from the wind-farm should this proceed. We wish to create jobs, better services, and more affordable housing in the local area to reverse the chronic population decline. We have drawn up a business plan, including renewable energy projects owned by the community, housing and tourism projects, and other developments. Community ownership has led to increased investment and improved economic trends in other parts of the Highlands and Islands, and we believe these advantages can also be realised in Pairc.

But there have been long delays. On 21st March 2011, the Scottish Government finally approved applications by the Trust under Part 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 to purchase land and an associated lease on the Estate. This followed two ballots of the community, a referral to the Land Court of an interposed lease established by the landlord, and protracted but unsuccessful discussions with the Estate about a possible voluntary transfer. A valuation was commissioned by the Government but suspended following the landlord’s appeal against the Government’s decisions. Since Summer 2011, we have held further discussions with the landlord about a possible amicable estate transfer.

The Pairc community buyout has become a saga, and a test-case for the land reform legislation. The community has shown great resilience in pursuing its goal of community ownership, despite many obstacles and setbacks. We are now seeking to raise funds for purchase of the Estate, once a price is known, and also for the first projects under our business plan once purchase has been completed. We do not yet know how much money will be required, but we need to have sufficient resources to undertake the purchase when required, and then to promote much-needed economic and social development in the area. The Trust have had encouraging discussions with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and the Big Lottery Fund, but they expect the community through its own fund-raising efforts also to make a contribution.

Please give generously to support this important and deserving community initiative. We are a charity (Registered Charity Number SC035193). If the buyout does not proceed, all contributions will be refunded where details of the donor are available.

Please make cheques payable to ‘Pairc Trust’ and send to:

Treasurer, Pairc Trust, Resource Centre, Kershader, South Lochs, Isle of Lewis, HS2 9QA

All donations will be acknowledged and kept in a separate community buyout fund to be used only for the purchase of the land and lease, and to fund initial developments after the buyout.

Gravir

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