The Scottish Crofting Federation has called for the resignation of the convener of the Crofting Commission, Colin Kennedy, following the exposure of the Commission having taken action on grazing committees against legal advice.
“It is clearly time for Kennedy to go”, said the Chair of the Scottish Crofting Federation, Fiona Mandeville. She continued:-
We’ve asked many times for an explanation but to no avail. Documents obtained through Freedom of Information are unequivocal; the board of the Crofting Commission, headed by Colin Kennedy, chose to ignore policy and legal advice and proceeded to impose, what lawyers are saying are illegal, constables upon grazing shareholders whose committees the Commission had removed from office. So much anguish has been caused by this whole debacle and now, as suspected, we can clearly see that Kennedy led the Commission down this destructive route.
The commissioners have behaved as a board would be expected to in closing ranks and taking joint responsibility. But it would do no good for crofting were all commissioners to resign. Kennedy was closely implicated in the sackings of the committees and, as convener, is accountable. He must do the honourable thing: leave.
Fiona Mandeville concluded:-
It is time to review not only what went wrong and how to put procedures in place to prevent this sort of thing happening again, but to also look at the wider purpose of the Crofting Commission. There have been a few calls for the disbanding of the Commission, a natural reaction to the grief it has caused. But our members are still supportive of having an independent body that oversees crofting. This convener got too inflated over legislation, spouting ‘the express will of Parliament’. But with him gone we can work with the Commission again, picking up on the excellent progress made with the five priorities for crofting. It is time to consider reinstating the responsibility for crofting development with the Commission; it was supposed to have been moved to HIE, though this transition never happened. If the Crofting Commission takes crofting development back with crofting regulation we would see a more rounded, holistic body representing Scottish Government working for crofting.
Wow! At last!!
I complained about him in 2013 but when I looked to the CC for support I was given a long winded written explanation and encouraged to with draw my complaint…
I have no faith in the present CC to deliver a service that is in the best interest of the land and crofting ..
I have relatives who once lived on the Isle of Coll. Kennedy made their life a misery. He was known as the island bully and anyone who didn’t agree with him or do his bidding was intimidated, threatened, taken to court or worse. He picked mainly on women, old men, and anyone who couldn’t fight him back. Many were taken to court by him, but when he found himself in court and was losing the case, he faked a heart attack to stop the case. Some people lost their jobs because of him. Some lost their homes. He caused so much misery and bitterness you wouldn’t believe. Many people keep press cuttings on the island of his shenanigans, he even appeared in the tabloids as the island bully. Ask him why he never goes in the only pub on the island! He has a lifelong ban that’s why. Why was he banned? Better ask him. And you appoint this bully boy! GEEZ
I once lived on the Island of Coll,
My husband had an agricultural lease (under the 1991 act) on a small farm located at the extreme south west tip of the Island, our nearest neighbour was a few miles away,
for a time we were very happy and then our lives were thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a new landlord,
the landlord almost immediately and without notice irritated my husband’s lease and without further ado we found ourselves in and out of various courts over the following seven years,
when asked why, our landlord replied it was just business.
Our landlord’s idea of just business was for both my husband and myself a living hell on earth,
many of our friends and neighbours turned their backs on us not because they wanted to but because they were afraid..
after what we went through, I cannot in all honesty say that I blame them.