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Am Bratach No. 199
Scotland-wide rural scheme ‘discriminates’ says MacRae Crofters’ leader, Allan
MacRae of 83 Torbreck, Lochinver, describes aspects of the Scottish
government’s flagship Scottish Rural Development Programme,
which received EU approval in January, as “hugely disappointing”.
Mr MacRae, chairman of the Assynt Crofters Trust and Scottish Crofting Foundation council member for North West Sutherland, said: “I think its hugely disappointing because it’s going to discriminate against a lot of crofters and, indeed, farmers too. The NFU and the crofting foundation have been very critical of it. After all, some of us had lobbied before for these schemes to be simple and be accessible to everybody. Part of this scheme is funded by modulation money that is taken off the support crofters and farmers are getting at the moment for agricultural works, and, given that the price of fuel is squeezing the life out of the economy up here in the Highlands, it is important that the people who need the money the most are be able to get it. This scheme is going to discriminate against the people who need the money the most and that seems to be very wrong. “After all, we have a government that talks about fairness and equality of opportunity and yet they come up with a scheme like this — it’s almost as though they’re out of touch with how the real countryside is up here. They should surely know that it’s going to discriminate against a lot of people. Do they care? “One of the key things about the scheme is that you've got to put in a Statement of Intent, in other words, what is the scheme you are proposing going to deliver, presumably. And then there’s quite a long-winded process to get your scheme through. There’s a lot of information on-line, but what’s the good of that if people can’t access it? It’s a huge disincentive. That’s what really gets me. “But one of my main points is that our elected representatives are silent,” added Mr MacRae. We asked Rob Gibson MSP, who sits for the government party in the Holyrood parliament, if Mr MacRae was right. “Well, it might be of interest to you to know,” said Mr Gibson, “that when we were talking about the submissions today, in the first eight days since the opening they received 149 statements of intent from 107 businesses. Of those submitted direct, only five businesses used agents and have demonstrated a clear understanding of the process. Now, they may not be crofters, but that’s interesting for a start. “The department is perfectly happy to send people out to help folk in remote areas if they’re having difficulties in getting on-line. As we know, the issue about broadband is certainly a problem which this government is also trying to solve through various means, but the fact is that this whole process has been much simplified compared to the past, you know. There’s a single point of contact for all rural businesses, there’s a single set of guidance [notes], there’s single standards costs, a reduced number of visits [required] and so on, and the reduced number of officials that are coming will make it simpler to handle. I believe that the stakeholders had been involved in the implementation model. There were people who were involved in seeing if this worked. “The government didn’t try to apply it to people without asking them if they thought it worked. “The government gave us a briefing yesterday, Wednesday,” continued Mr Gibson, “and they’re underlining the fact they’re vexed because while people may be expressing these concerns, there was widespread discussion about how it was going to be done. And they’re funding the Crofters Commission and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations to provide assistance to rural community groups.” Referring to the above, a spokesman for the Scottish Government said: “Ministers recognise the proud tradition in rural areas of folk doing it for themselves. But there have been major changes in respect of rural development — not least in funding opportunities for local investment. Recognising this, Ministers have announced that they will give £100k per annum to the Crofters Commission for the next three years in order to enable them to continue the type of work they did under the old CCDS scheme in supporting communities, drawing up investment plans and making funding applications.” He added: “Ministers have also announced around £200k for SCVO to carry out similar work in the non-crofting counties. This ensures all rural communities the length and breadth of the country should receive help and support. It is an example of this Government’s commitment to empowerment and capacity building. “The Crofters Commission and SCVO have been working together to consider the service they aim to provide to achieve the desired outcomes. We hope to issue funding consent to the organisations in the near future.” The spokesman denied a suggestion made by Mr MacRae that Scottish National Heritage were having undue influence over the programme and were the “lead” organisation in its implementation. “No, I don’t think that would be correct, to be honest,” he said. “I mean, the whole £1.6billion scheme is being run by the Scottish Government. I think SNH and Forestry Commission are two of our delivery bodies on the ground there — there to aid, consult, because a lot of the stuff that falls under SRDP comes within natural habitats and forestry areas; so that’s why they have a role here, but it’s very much a Scottish Government-run programme.” He was reluctant to admit another charge from Allan MacRae, that the application process is very complicated. “I’m not sure I would say it’s complicated,” he said. “I’ve seen people go through the [process] in a presentational way and it actually seemed quite straightforward. In terms of the on-line application process, I don’t think there is an alternative to that. It wouldn’t be in any way practical.” An official briefing paper states: “Due to the number and range of options available (156 including new entrants, village halls, forestry, biodiversity, business development and renewable energy) and the focus on regional priorities (local solutions for national outcomes) a manual system, would be unmanageable for applicants who with the on line system can quickly and easily focus on the elements which are pertinent to their business.” The spokesman added: “We do appreciate there are people out there who don’t have all the internet access that a lot of others do. We are actually going to take action shortly to assist those, but most people out there do have broadband access and people are becoming increasingly internet-savvy and they’ll be a small minority of people, that we will be helping, that would be the exception to the rule here.” The development programme is running behind schedule. “I don’t think the first cash emerged until January,” added the government spokesman. “There was, shall we say, various hold-up within Europe about some of the provisions within the plan, such as nitrate-vulnerable zones, which we didn’t have a strong representation in at first, but Europe asked us to go away and get it put in which rather held up the process. We first gave it to them in May but didn’t get it finally cleared until the end of 2007.” Around 70% of funding for SRDP is from the Scottish Government; the rest from the European Union. The rate of what is called “voluntary modulation” — the transfer of funds from the Single Farm Payment to Rural Development — referred to by Mr MacRae in the early part of the story — will be much lower than that claimed by critics, said the spokesman. He said it will be 8% in 2008, 8.5% in 2009 and 9% in each year from 2010-12 inclusive. Meetings to explain the programme are presently being organised by the National Farmers Union of Scotland. Details of those to be held in Thurso and Inverness can be found in our What's On Diary. CLICK to buy a postal subscription online |