PAIRC COMMUNITY AND LAND REFORM

That this House congratulates the crofting community of Pairc in the Western Isles for its historic vote to use its right under the Scottish Land Reform Act to make a compulsory purchase of the 25,000 acre Pairc Estate; commends the Pairc Community Trust and the Scottish Community Land Unit for the responsible way they managed the consultation process and the ballot; applauds the Labour Government for having launched the land reform process in January 1999 through its Green Paper, and the Scottish Parliament for having passed the Land Reform Act in January 2003; and hopes that many other communities in the Highlands and Islands will take similar advantage of their new rights under the Act, so fulfilling the vision of sweeping land reform in the Scottish Highlands and Islands first articulated by radical politicians such as Keir Hardie and the crofting MPs, Dr Roderick MacDonald, Charles Fraser MacKintosh, Dr Gavin Clark, Alexander Sutherland and Donald MacFarlane, more than 100 years ago.