Andy Wightman

FORTY years ago, the first fish farms appeared in Scotland’s west coast sea lochs. No planning consent was required and, as they spread, local politicians and campaigners became aware of the unaccountable and remote body that is the Crown Estate and its commissioners.

TO most folk, the planning system is of little interest. It is a somewhat dry and technical subject and only tends to excite people when neighbours propose an extension to their house or a new road is proposed. But planning in its modern form has been around for 70 years since the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 and has shaped much of our communities. Before that, Scots such as Patrick Geddes developed ideas on the art and science of planning.

A FEW days before Christmas, Scottish Ministers issued a decision letter approving the construction of a film studio and power station at Damhead in the greenbelt to the south of Edinburgh.

WE did it.

TODAY’S revelations in the Sunday Herald highlight the scale and reach of secrecy jurisdictions in Scottish landownership. From flats in Glasgow to extensive hunting estates in the Highlands, unknown persons are hiding behind the corporate veil of Panamanian companies and the Scottish public are being denied information about who owns Scotland.

Contrary to how it is often portrayed, it is not a process concerning only community landownership or farming tenants or indeed rural Scotland. It is in fact a process of reforming the legal, fiscal and administrative framework governing all land in Scotland. It is about how land is owned, occupied, taxed, inherited, and used from the centre of Glasgow to the island of Rockall in the North Atlantic.

The referendum in September is obviously important, although ongoing discussions on the shape of the CAP may have more impact in the immediate future. There are also three separate and quite distinct reviews under way on land reform. The independent Land Reform Review Group is due to report in April. The House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee in Westminster is undertaking an inquiry into land reform and the agricultural holdings legislation is the subject of a ministerial-led review by the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Environment, Richard Lochhead.

Decades of opposition by landed interests had blocked moves to establish them north of the Border so Scotland's newly-elected MSPs were keen to correct this anomaly early on.

It is mildly amusing when I meet people who wonder how on earth one can survive without visiting the “capital” and even more amusing still when I remind them that, actually I already live in the “capital” (Edinburgh).