Land reform?

QUESTIONS about the Scottish government’s awareness of national geography surfaced on Friday with the publication of its long awaited report on land reform.

The report was written by the Land Reform Review Group, which itself established in July 2012 but has seen three advisers resign over its short lifetime.

It has 62 recommendations which are designed to create a wider diversity of land ownership in Scotland, to help communities purchase land and create a new relationship between land, people, economy and environment.

The front cover of the report shows a map of Scotland stretching out to the 200 nautical mile boundary. However when it comes to the northern isles it has created two capital towns of Kirkwall, one in Orkney and one in Shetland.

The report has been widely welcomed by land reformers, but within hours the government came in for criticism from leading land campaigner Andy Wightman for rejecting a key recommendation in the report to review agricultural business rate relief.