A FAMILY that was set to be turfed off their farm within days have struck a last minute deal that will see them instead leave in January following a high-profile campaign against the eviction.
More than 20,000 signed a petition protesting against the eviction of Andrew and Claire Stoddart, who had farmed land in East Lothian for more than two decades and invested heavily in the business, but faced being made homeless when a landlord dissolved their agreement.
The Stoddarts, who have three young children, were told to leave by Saturday, but an eleventh hour deal has now been struck with landowners The Colstoun Trust which will allow them to remain beyond Christmas.
The new compromise settlement reached will include a degree of financial compensation, although the full details of the agreement have not been revealed, they leave by the end of January.
Mr Stoddart said: "Following eleventh hour mediation, we have come to a settlement with Colstoun Trust. This has been done to protect my family from further anxiety. A short period of occupancy has been agreed to allow us to remove our animals and dispose of our equipment to better advantage."
Environment secretary Richard Lochhead had personally intervened in the case in the hope of finding a resolution, following a public outcry over the case and a campaign that also involved protests outside Holyrood.
It comes as the SNP faces a clamour from within its own party to go further on the issue of land reform, after a bill currently making its way through Holyrood was criticised at its party conference for not going nearly far enough.
Mr Stoddart believed 2003 legislation would give him security of tenure, but a ruling at the Supreme Court three year ago ruled the law defective allowing the landlord to demand the land back.
He added: "After 22 years, against considerable odds, I have left this farm better than I found it. It has been a hard struggle at times, and I want to pay tribute to my wife Claire who has shared the burden with me. We probably should have left many years ago when difficulties with the landlords began, but we never suspected it would end like this. We thought the 2003 Act had changed our lives, only to see our hopes dashed by the remedial order of 2014. The laws which allow landlords to arbitrarily end tenancies in order to access farming subsidies directly need amended.
"I would like to thank everyone who has supported us over this difficult time, and helped get us to a better place. We will leave East Lothian with many happy memories, on our way to a new beginning as yet unknown."
Land reform campaigner Lesley Riddoch said: "Andrew finally has some compensation for his 22 years of work and improvement at Coulston Mains Farm and two more months to sell off his farm equipment and find a new job and home.
"He also knows that his neighbours and folk he has never even met care deeply about his situation and that of his wife, three daughters and the families of his staff. Once his domestic situation is sorted, I hope Andrew will become a strong voice in the growing movement for effective land reform which must include some sort of right to buy for tenant farmers and I hope other tenant farmers in similar circumstances take comfort from this campaign which managed to get a better deal for the Stoddarts."
Robin McAlpine, director of think tank Common Weal, described the outcome as a "victory of sorts".
He added: "The Stoddart family will not be left destitute and that has to be welcomed. But the family will still be uprooted from their community and it is hard to see how Andrew will ever be able to farm again.
"Surely the kind of Scotland in which we want to live is not one where a hardworking and successful farmer, his family, employees and their families can be thrown off the land they worked in this way.
"The intervention of the Scottish Government helped to get this deal and should be welcomed, but it is now essential that they take land reform much more seriously and make sure that this isn’t how Scotland treats those who live and work on its land."
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