Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01729 · Session 5

Legal protection of crofts from local authority care charges

Closed Submitted 9 Jul 2019 Health
Signatures
0
553 online signatures with a country
Comments
57
Considered
3 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to ensure crofting tenancies are exempt from local authority Financial Assessments for care charges.

What the petitioner did first

I have raised this issue with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (CNES) and made a formal complaint.
I have contacted Mr Donald Cameron MSP who wrote to the Chief Executive of CNES and the Crofting Commission on my behalf seeking clarification on a number of questions
I have submitted a complaint to the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) about my dissatisfaction with the decision by CNES.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 19 Sep 2019
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 20 Feb 2020
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  3. 8 Oct 2020
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

553 online signatures
  1. Scotland442 79.9%
  2. United Kingdom99 17.9%
  3. England8 1.4%
  4. Northern Ireland1 0.2%
  5. Wales1 0.2%
  6. Canada1 0.2%
  7. Spain1 0.2%

Comments

57 comments, oldest first
57 comments · showing 1–50
  1. Caroline McCallum 16 Jul 2019
    Seems ridiculous and arbitrary that an asset, which cannot be sold, should be treated as an asset to fund social care services.
  2. Janette Maciver 16 Jul 2019
    A family should never be forced to sell their family home. This is an exceptionally unfair policy. Hope you get lots of signatures.
  3. Christina macritchie 16 Jul 2019
    I support this petition 100%
  4. Catherine Afrin 16 Jul 2019
    This is very unfair
  5. George Farlow 16 Jul 2019
    This sounds like the worst sort of land grab. Crofting retains people in remote areas. Councils are not supposed to be adding to their asset portfolio but encouraging community development and repopulation of remote and rural areas. There is no long term benefit to a regional council for continued centralisation or allowing further holiday houses.
  6. Maggie Macdonald 17 Jul 2019
    Croft houses and crofts are given and built with a view to passing on to ones child .Council selling them means more air bandb available and lsland will be depopulated
  7. Catherine Russell 17 Jul 2019
    Hope you will be successful
  8. Murdo Fraser 17 Jul 2019
    Well done John for pursuing this . Hopefully common sense prevails here.
  9. Angus Macleod 17 Jul 2019
    Worthy cause
  10. Murdo Fraser 17 Jul 2019
    Well done John .
  11. Kenny Mitchell 18 Jul 2019
    Depopulating the island by robbing possessions is morally wrong. Yes I understand the funds have to come from somehere but does that mean the person who worked all his life loses everything he worked hard for leaving nothing for their loved ones and the person who didnt work a day in his life and has no possessions is completely covered NO QUESTIONS ASKED.
  12. Nancy MacAskill 19 Jul 2019
    Unfair to take a Croft tenancy from a family who have wanted to or already passed on to family which may have been in family for generations
  13. Nicola Hines 22 Jul 2019
    They should certainly be exempt.
  14. Murray Graham 23 Jul 2019
    Well done on all you efforts with this, a cause worth fighting for!
  15. Lilian Macdonald 23 Jul 2019
    should be exempt for sure
  16. Jan Roberts 27 Jul 2019
    For all the legislation crofters have to adhere to, at cost, there should be some form of protection.
  17. Mairi macleod 27 Jul 2019
    Hope this petition is successful in bringing to end families being robbed of crofts that have been in their families for generations .
  18. Calum Iain Macleod 30 Jul 2019
    Well done Iain for raising this shameful matter and taking it this far. Hoping that things go the right way and that the crofts and houses are left with the families who have worked them for many years, and indeed, many generations
  19. Lauren Matheson 2 Aug 2019
    Ridiculous how people are robbed from family homes to pay for home care, needs to be exempt for sure
  20. Christina Murray 8 Aug 2019
    causes grief to families already grieving
  21. Cameron Morrison 12 Aug 2019
    I wholeheartedly support this petition and hope the right thing is done and the petition is successful in securing its objectives. Previous generations fought so hard to protect their land and property but it seems in recent times the land grab which we thought was buried in the past is reading its ugly head again.
  22. Catherine Morrison 12 Aug 2019
    Hope this will be taken seriously by all concerned
  23. John Macdonald 12 Aug 2019
    Well done for bringing this to our attention, should certainly be exempt
  24. Zena Mackenzie 12 Aug 2019
    This is long overdue. Well done you.
  25. Kath mMace 12 Aug 2019
    Should be exempt
  26. kenneth mac kinnon 12 Aug 2019
    its morally wrong,those unfortunate people have worked hard all their lives,paid taxes and national insurance and for the government to deprive them of their family home because they need some care is just so wrong it should be illegal.
  27. Fiona Mac Leod 12 Aug 2019
    The whole point of security of tenure for crofters was to keep people on and working the land but if crofts are going to be sold off like this to the highest bidder it defeats the whole purpose and will end this way of life in the Highlands and islands. Only those who can afford to pay the highest prices will be able to live here, unlikely to be young people with families.
  28. Elenor Macleay 12 Aug 2019
    Wrong on so many levels, robbery by muggers in pinstripe suits sitting at desks in the city!
  29. John Maciver 12 Aug 2019
    when you already pay £750 a month for care and they wish to the home to pay for care something needs to sorted out
  30. Stephen Walker 12 Aug 2019
    Family member operates a Croft which has been in her family for many generations and which other family members take an active interest in. I feel it would be a travesty if the Croft and house had to be sold off if family members had to go into care. Is there not a parallel with the Clearances?
  31. Kenneth Matheson 12 Aug 2019
    A thoroughly bad, short sighted practice which further weakens and destabilises already fragile communities
    - and oddly being undertaken by a the body whose core remit ought to be supporting and strengthening their crofting communities. It ought to stop immediately.
  32. Naomi Robarts 12 Aug 2019
    Totally agree Crofts should not be taken into account during assessment
  33. Marie Cumming 12 Aug 2019
    Exemption is a necessity for what is important lively hood for many
  34. Fraser Cumming 12 Aug 2019
    Crofters should be exempt
  35. Susan Harvey 12 Aug 2019
    Currently buying a croft tenancy, with every intention of passing it on to family member, who will also living there and in time, other family members. Given its not considered capital on which to raise a mortgage how can it be capital for council use? How is that incouraging families into crofting?
  36. Anne Macleod 12 Aug 2019
    Generations of people have made untold sacrifices to pass on their homes and crofts to their children and their children's children. Very often the land and the home was all that they had.
  37. Anne Macleod 12 Aug 2019
    Generations of people have made untold sacrifices to pass on their homes and crofts to their children and their children's children. Very often the land and the home was all that they had.
  38. alex macdonald 12 Aug 2019
    under no circumstances should we lose croftland
  39. donald mac millan 12 Aug 2019
    very unfair
  40. Christopher smith 12 Aug 2019
    Best of luck with petition.
  41. John Daniel Peteranna 12 Aug 2019
    Croft should be exempt, to allow them to be left to the next generation
  42. Ian Murdo Macdonald 13 Aug 2019
    I hope this petition is successful. We are as a family in exactly the same position, with our family home being taken by CNES as part of the charges for a family member's care . Th effect of this policy is not only to deprive a family of a home in my case the only home I have as I live in a tied house, but further denude our villages and communities of local families who have lived there for generations.
  43. James MacDonald 13 Aug 2019
    Crofting needs to be supported in every way.
  44. Allan Cameron Maclachlan 13 Aug 2019
    Hope this petition is successful
  45. Derek Stewart 13 Aug 2019
    Families built these houses and crofts to be handed on to there loved ones not to fill a council black hole try cutting some of the pointless travel that could be saved by using video conference calls
  46. Angus Macdonald 13 Aug 2019
    Before the Crofting Act 1886 tenants were treated like a lower caste of human despite in many cases being more intelligent, more honest and less manipulative than their 'masters'. The bureaucracy of the crofting commission and crofting law sadly continues this character assassination. It is not the fault of people who have had to go away from home to fulfil their potential but the lack of investment and contempt over decades by ignorant politicians and bureaucrats. Enterprise stifled, communication backward, land use turning into wet deserts. I personally will not accept this contempt any longer.
  47. Mal Macleod 13 Aug 2019
    Crofting tenure was always meant to pass to family members and should be exempt from any local authority charges
  48. Flora MacIsaac 16 Aug 2019
    Family homes and crofts should be kept in the family and passed down to the he next generation.I hope this petition is successful.
  49. Dixie Porter 16 Aug 2019
    Crofts should be exempt to allow them to be passed to the next generation. Best of luck with petition.
  50. Donald Anderson 16 Aug 2019
    We don't wish to return to the Highland Clearences, stop this nonsense.