Crofters back first hostile buy-out

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Crofters back hostile estate buy-out       
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/33204.html

DAVID ROSS, Highland Correspondent  
February 10 2005        

CROFTERS and residents last night voted in favour of what may be the
first hostile buy-out of an estate in Scotland.

They voted 830 in favour of exercising their right to buy the
55,000-acre Galson Estate in the Ness area of Lewis, despite the
Grahams and Macraes, the families who own the land, refusing to put it
on the market. A total of 146 people voted against the move. The
absolute right to buy was established by the Scottish Executive's land
reform legislation.

The Galson estate is the site of 90 of the 234 wind turbines proposed
for a giant wind farm.

An application to buy the land is now expected to be lodged early nexy
month. It is still unclear what the Scottish Land Fund's attitude
would be to an application for support to buy land.

Crofters on the Pairc estate on the island who voted for a buy-out
last year have yet to lodge an application.

The owners of Galson have consistently refused to comment on the
proposed buy-out.