Bernera buyout bid "cannot wait"

The decade-long efforts to achieve a buy-out have received no response from the Frankfurt-based estate owner but work to force a sale through the “crofting community right to buy” have continued.

This was confirmed to a well-attended AGM of Great Bernera Community Development Trust – the first “live” meeting possible since 2019. In other respects, there were encouraging indicators of a fightback against the island’s population decline.

In recent years, Bernera has lost its school, shop and Post Office while new initiatives have been blocked by the landowner’s refusal to communicate. This week, the Gazette asked the Mirrlees family’s Inverness based advisers, Murchison Law, if they had received any recent advice in relation to a buy-out but received no response.

In the absence of any move to revise the 2003 legislation which make it extremely difficult to exercise the crofting community right to buy in face of a hostile landowner, painstaking efforts to meet the mapping criteria for land under crofting tenure have continued.

A Trustees’ report described this as “a huge undertaking” but warned of the need for absolute accuracy as the inclusion of any land not under estate ownership could lead to the whole application being challenged. “It all has to be accurate for it to succeed”.

The situation on Bernera is even more complex because of a history of “free gift crofts” which were not formally registered under the 1955 Act when that was not a matter of significance. Consultants are assisting the Trust in getting the mapping absolutely accurate and it is hoped to lodge the Section 3 application early next year.

On other fronts, the message from retiring chair, Anne Ryan, was upbeat. She reported: “It has been ten years since we formed the group and I can honestly say that we are making more progress than ever before and this year coming, we anticipate making huge strides forward”.

She stressed: “We began by focussing on the opportunity for a community buyout and that still remains one of our key aims but we cannot sit back and see our community struggle as services end”.

A major project to instal pontoons for up to 16 visiting and local boats at Kirkibost is nearing fruition. The infrastructure is completed but awaits an electric meter and supply agreement, as all suppliers have been refusing to connect to new commercial clients. A “chink of light” in this stand-off was reported.

Another critical project is an affordable housing development on Glebe land owned by Callanish Free Church. Negotiations over sale of the land are continuing.

Former chair, John Porteous, described the meeting as “extremely encouraging” with seven new volunteers to become Trustees and carry forward the work. He said the appointment of two part-time development officers with support from HIE had been “transformational”.

In her report, Ms Ryan referred to the loss of Joan Macaulay who had been “the link between all the groups in Bernera, smoothing the way for us all to complement the activities of the others. Her loss, last year, left a huge hole across the community”.