Consultations

Elections to the Crofting Commission

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Consultation paper on draft regulations

Respondent Information Form

Please Note this form must be returned with your response to ensure that we handle your response appropriately.

Please see the form below

Elections_to_CC_response.pdf

SNH Commissioned Report 454 - Impact of the decline in hill farming.

Monday, September 05, 2011

Agricultural census data from the Scottish Government has shown that the national sheep flock declined by almost 2.9 million between 1998 and 2009. Similarly, the beef cattle herd declined by 110,783 over the same period. The greatest declines in livestock have been in the hills and uplands of the north and west of Scotland. These declines have been fuelled by a combination of factors, including a general down-turn in the economic viability of hill farms and changes in the way that livestock farmers are subsidised. The changes in hill farming and crofting that have resulted from the decline in livestock numbers have had economic, social and natural heritage impacts. Conservation and natural heritage objectives in some parts of Scotland depend on the continuation of livestock farming. Livestock farming is also an integral part of the culture and history of rural Scotland, and is vital to the rural economy. The aim of this project was to gather information on what is happening on the ground in terms of livestock declines, the changes in management associated with these declines, and the impacts of these changes on the natural heritage and rural communities.

Link to SNH report (8mbs)

SCF Crofting Policy Resolution - election 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

1. SCF call on the next Scottish Government to publish an Action Plan for Crofting within a year of taking office. The plan should set out the policies that will be put in place to meet two objectives:

1. A majority of Scotland’s existing 17,000 crofts being used by active crofters to produce food and public goods – 70% by 2020 and 85% by 2030. 

2. Creating 10,000 new crofts by 2020, with a longer term objective of increasing the area of land under crofting tenure so that one-quarter of land in Scotland is in crofting tenure by 2030.

SCF_Crofting_Policy_Resolution_-_election_2011

Land Use Consultation Full Response

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

The Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) is pleased to offer this response to the Government’s consultation on the above. SCF is the only representative and campaigning organisation for crofters and crofting in Scotland. The crofting counties cover almost half the land-mass of the country, and 25 percent of the agricultural land within that area is under crofting tenure. Much of this land is rough grazing, but there is good arable and grassland in crofting tenure in such areas as Easter Ross, Caithness, Orkney, the south end of Shetland, and the machair lands of the Outer Hebrides and the Argyll Islands. This is a resource of huge food production capacity, but also comprises many of the country’s most valued landscapes and habitats, and most of its peat-based soils (and therefore by far its largest soil-carbon store). There are approximately 17,500 crofts and 11,000 crofters.

Land_Use_Strategy_Consultation_Questions.pdf;Land_Use_Strategy_Preamble.pdf

SCF Response to the Pack interim report

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the interim report of the Inquiry into future support for agriculture in Scotland. SCF is the only member-led organisation dedicated to promoting crofting and is the largest association of small-scale food producers in Scotland. Its mission is to safeguard and promote the rights, livelihoods and culture of crofters and their communities. Working through our membership structure we can respond authoritively at local, national and international levels on the many issues affecting crofting and crofting communities. We have presented here comments gathered from our area representatives and advisors, not in any order of priority. 

SCF-pack-response.pdf

Brian Pack Inquiry - Interim Report

Thursday, February 04, 2010

The Inquiry into Future Support for Agriculture in Scotland invites interested organisations and individuals to respond to this public consultation as part its Inquiry.

Attached is the report as well as a number of issues for consideration.

Responses should be sent to: BrianPackInquiry@scotland.gsi.gov.uk and they should be in no later than the 5th of March 2010.

The latest news on the inquiry can be found at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/farmingrural/Agriculture/inquiry/latest

Interim_Report.pdf; Issues_for_Consideration.doc

SCF response to the Crofting Reform (Scotland) Bill consultation May 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the proposals put forward by the Scottish Government (SG) to amend crofting law. The consultation document is meticulous, is well written and clearly laid out, which is to be commended. We appreciate that the Crofting Futures Team also presented this document at a wide selection of venues in the crofting counties which gave crofters the opportunity to get clarification and to give opinions.

We are responding on behalf of our membership, currently in excess of 2000 individuals plus their families, who have been widely consulted and given the opportunity to contribute to the draft. We trust therefore that this will be given due weight.

Crofting legislation needs to be placed in the wider context of food production, land management, environment and social well-being in rural Scotland but it is our opinion that this bill fails to do this. We attempt to place crofting in this context before answering the consultation questions.

 For a full copy of the SCF response please click on the PDF below

dCRB_response_-_SCF.pdfdCRB_response_-_SCF.pdf

SCF and EFNCP joint response to SG CAP Health Check

Thursday, May 14, 2009

SCF and EFNCP joint response to the Scottish Government consultation on CAP Health Check implementation.

SG_Health_Check_EFNCP-SCF-Response.pdf

SCF evidence to The House of Lords LFASS Enquiry

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) welcomes the opportunity to input to this review of the LFA scheme by the House of Lords. Please see the attached pdf file for the full response.

HOL-LFASS.pdf

SCF and EFNCP response to LFASS consultation

Monday, December 22, 2008

A joint response by the Scottish Crofting Foundation and the European
Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism to the Scottish
Government consultation on the Less favoured Area Support Scheme,
December 2008.

LFASS_2008_consultation_response_-_SCF.pdf

SCF response to the petition by Mrs Netta MacKenzie

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Scottish Crofting Foundation response to the request by the Petitions Committee regarding the petition raised by Netta MacKenzie, PE1201

Response_to_Netta_MacKenzies_Petition.doc

Summary of SCF members’ response to the CoIoC recommendations

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

There is consensus that the CoIoC Final Report is a useful reference document that can be used to steer crofting reform, whilst recognising that not all of the recommendations are acceptable. There has been opinion at both ends of the spectrum from ‘bin Shucksmith’ to ‘this is the best thing to have happened to crofting’, with the majority recognising that crofting has problems and that change has to happen, but carefully. The whole Inquiry process has been very useful in stimulating discussion on crofting.

Summary_of_SCF_members_views_re_CoIoC.doc

SCF Response to CAP Healthcheck

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

SCF response to the future implementation of the common agricultural policy in scotland - the cap ‘healthcheck’

CAP_Healthcheck_SCF.doc

SCF Submission to Rural Housing Inquiry

Monday, April 28, 2008

The Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) is pleased to offer the following evidence to the Scottish Parliament rural housing enquiry. 

SCF is the only representative organisation for crofters and crofting in Scotland.  There are approximately 18,000 crofts in the ‘crofting counties’ of Inverness, Argyll, Orkney, Shetland and Eileanan an Iar.  Crofters and their families comprise around 10%, or 30,000, of the Highlands and Islands population forming 30% of households on the mainland and 65% of households in Skye, Eileanan an Iar and Shetland.  Average crofting household income is £21,000, and crofting provides around 30% of that income1.  25% of agricultural land in the Highlands and Islands is under crofting tenure.  Crofting has been successful in maintaining populations in some of Scotland’s most remote areas by giving people access to land, homes and jobs.  Housing support given to crofters has historically given excellent value for public money in rural housing provision, but that support has been massively devalued over the last twenty years. 

Housing_Inquiry_SCF_submission.pdf

SCF contibution to the Food Policy Discussion

Friday, April 25, 2008

Scottish Crofting Foundation (SCF) is pleased to offer the following contribution to the discussion on the National Food Policy for Scotland.  SCF is the only representative and campaigning organisation for crofters and crofting in Scotland.  We congratulate the Scottish Government on this policy initiative which has far reaching importance for our members.

Food production in Scotland must concentrate on quality, local provision, provenance and environment.  Maintaining food production, especially livestock, in upland, peripheral and island areas is of inestimable social, economic and environmental importance.  Small scale agriculture, such as crofting, has been successful in maintaining populations in some of Scotland’s most remote areas.  By contrast, industrial scale agriculture driven by a commercial UK food policy, whether in the Straths of Sutherland or the arable prairies of the East of England, has cleared rural populations leaving a degraded environment and a countryside that is the preserve of the very rich.

Food_Policy_Discussion.pdf