AN expert on crofting law is calling for Ministers to scrap the "excessively complicated" legislation overseeing the industry amid claims it is confusing even to those who administer it.
Duncan MacPhee, of Fort William solicitors MacPhee and Partners, said the two existing acts which cover crofting should be dropped and agricultural laws adapted to cover the country's 12,000 crofters.
Mr MacPhee is a member of the Crofting Law Group of lawyers who have produced the "Crofting Law Sump", a review of the problems of crofting law with a list of corrections requiring legislative provision, to help Ministers.
But he now says more fundamental reform is needed. His comments follow a complicated case in which the Crofting Commission, the regulatory body, blocked a move by a couple in North Ballachulish, to 'decroft' - take out of crofting tenure - an area of land to build 10 houses.
The Crofting Commission declared the application "incompetent" in July 2013 on the grounds that Donnie and Liz MacGillivray had not purchased all of their croft and, therefore, did not qualify to apply to decroft any part of it.
However in December the Scottish Land Court ruled against the commission, who have just announced they will not appeal that ruling.
Mr MacPhee, who is the MacGillivrays' lawyer, said the Scottish Land Court had declared the Crofting Commission's policy to be a legal mistake. He added: "It appears the commission have now accepted their mistake. To be fair to the commission, many people, including experienced crofters and crofting lawyers (including ourselves), as well as on occasion the commission themselves, simply no longer understand it.
"The recent legislation has made crofting law excessively complicated and uncertain. So bad is it, that MacPhee & Partners have concluded that the best thing that could now be done with the crofting law, is to scrap it.
"We advocate starting over again, and using the agricultural law applying to the rest of Scotland, adapted as little as possible to deal with the extreme circumstances of those trying to farm the poor quality land of the Highlands and Islands."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said it was considering the recommendations of the Crofting Law Sump after receiving its final report and meeting one of the report's authors last month.
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