If you go down to the woods, you’ll get a big and disappointing surprise

But the plans are lying in tatters amid bitterness and anger, and the forest is locked up while the forestry machines lie rusting and decaying.

In 2003 Scottish Development Minister Ross Finnie was dubbed “Robert Mugabe in a tartan outfit” by the Scottish Conservatives as they lost the fight against the historic business on land reform, which gives communities first refusal on the land where they live and work.

Rotting slabwood

Six years later, residents on the Island of Bute secured a community buy-out of a section of Rhubodach Forest, 700 hectares area of land at the north of the Island – at the time, the largest community buy-out ballot under the land reform legislation with 2,555 islanders (93%) voting in its favour.

Community land ownership: is it fit for purpose?

The purchase was enabled by a £353,949 grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for the land, as well as further funds from the community, and private donations. HIE also paid out additional sums for marketing, a local development officer, a graduate placement, equipment and to support a funding application.

Almost ten years on, and around £400,000 of public funding down, what is there to show of the Bute Community Land Company (BCLC) vision for Bute Community forest?

Bute Forest Ltd, the subsidiary company of BCLC formed to manage the forest operations and earn income was wound up in 2016 after being described by Peter Vincent, the previous chair, as a “sideshow”.

Members of the Bute Community Forest told The Herald exclusively of their concern. Richard Matts and Liam Walsh told The Herald on Sunday: “The forest is now falling into neglect. It is in a worse condition than when purchased.

“Involvement of members has fallen to low-to-zero levels. The project is regarded locally as toxic. There has been a major decline in volunteer numbers, from an initial 70... to near zero."

Both Matts and Walsh expressed concern over public funding – an issue which has twice been reported to OSCR in 2016 and 2017.

“You think, this is wrong, this is a crime. Where is the policeman? The policeman is OSCR. Where are they? What are they doing about this?

“When government funding is supposed to be under a tight squeeze in a period of austerity… all this money on Bute – we could have had four nurses, a dialysis center and some teachers.

“The board have gone through a huge amount of money and made virtually no progress. There’s been no delivery of training programs, employment, community benefit. Virtually nothing."

Abandoned mill

In February 2018, OSCR concluded their inquiry into Bute Community Land Company.

A spokesperson told The Herald on Sunday: “Bute Forest Ltd was dissolved in November 2018 because it was failing, and the charity was having to use charitable funds to support it."

Comment: Is it time to put our struggling town centres out of their misery?

As our trading guidance explains 'Charity trustees must be clear that if they use the charity’s assets to support a failing trading subsidiary then they are putting those assets at risk and failing in their duties’.

Indeed, Reid says that the winding up of the Forest was due ‘following failure of the previous management in a number of ways, especially in documentation and governance. Considerable losses had accumulated in the company probably due to financial misunderstandings.’

Matts and Walsh added: “We thought we were going to have a community forest, and we don’t - we have one that’s going down the hole.”

The Herald on Sunday asked current chair of BCLC John Reid if he agreed that the BCLC had failed to deliver their intended vision.

He responded by saying that "subsidary objectives including educational and availability to the community had been met"; that over "one thousand’ visits had been made in the last year by "disabled persons, for whom part of our woods have been adapted", and that a number of unnamed "facilities have been provided for several small local businesses."

“Community companies should not have purely financial objectives, especially those with charitable aims, and BCLC objectives have changed over the years,” said Reid.

“A main objective is to survive, and we are doing that, avoiding the loss of control to off-island bodies”.

Reid added that following the closure of Bute Forest LTD: “the positive decision was to outsource to established forestry companies any operations required, which are presently few in terms of ongoing maintenance”.

Reid appealed to the Bute Community: “to be aware that this valuable community forest could easily become controlled from outside Bute and would have been without the efforts of the present team and volunteers”.

Compost toilet 

Donald Cameron, MSP for the Highlands and Islands, said: “It is very disappointing that, in the case of Rhubadoch Forest, we do not appear to have been able to reach a consensus on the best way forward.

“There are obviously a number of questions that need to be answered, not least why the forest has been closed, and around the status of any money that is supposed to be funding work in the forest.

“Once those questions have been answered, and governance arrangements are put in place to address any legitimate concerns, I hope the community can come together to take full advantage of what could be a tremendous asset for local people.”

Opinion: Why community ownership is essential for the future of rural Scotland

Failing community by-outs are not unique: the Isle of Gigha was purchased in a community buy-out only to accumulate debts of £2.7million.

In 2016, the farmer’s union submitted an inquiry to Holyrood that suggested that communities that purchase land under the buy-out laws to see their projects fail should be forced to hand it back to the original owners.