Money should be going into funding northern lives, not golf courses

It strikes me that local rural communities are now so desperate that they are willing to give up their unique natural heritage for a disguised new economic opportunity that will be owned by a rich fellow who owns the most beautiful and natural scenic coast golf courses in the world. If you look into his business profile all to quickly it becomes clear that conservationists had not much say in this at all. Money was the main driver.

Scotland already has big problems with land ownership. Is it not time that north Scotland takes control back and seriously looks into economic benefits that will uplift its heritage? Is the north of Scotland not loved and well visited by tourists from all over the world who share the awesomeness of the beautiful natural heritage? Should we not do our very best to create our own opportunities with all the help, funding and services available and ones that needs to be harder pushed? And should these not be promoted at the highest priority? Should we not consider enhancing these places for natural heritage which is so connected to our history and well-known to people all over the world?

The Scottish Government has made commitments in the National Planning Framework 4 to put priority to future development in the rural areas of the north of Scotland. Future development includes more affordable housing, more training and apprenticeship facilities for students, support for entrepreneurs focused on small businesses to create more understanding and appreciation of its natural assets, supporting funding to community hubs, more community ownership and building a place-based, people-focused resilient pathway for more quality of life within communities. Supporting the vision of our young people where the long-term outcome for development and our future generation is taken in account. The Government implements this through funding new community support programmes. These programmes are specially designed to welcome community developments and ownership.

Organisations like Community Land Scotland, Scottish Rural Action, North Highland Initiative, SCOTO, Young Person’s Guarantee scheme, My Future My Success, all offer training, workshops and/or funding to community developments while looking through a “rural lens” for policymaking and service design. And all of these organisations recognise the need for more diversity in employment and a more community-focused economy. Not to forget the need of community-owned housing. Besides, the new campus from SRUC in Inverness is now the leading research centre on Veterinary Services, and works as a hub for the agriculture.

Community development projects currently ongoing include the eight projects Community Land Scotland granted £377,328 in October this year to, including a fund of £54,000, granted to “North Sutherland Community Forest Trust” to acquire the site of Rosal clearance village. An overwhelming delight to hear this. Other projects included more community ownerships of historic buildings in rural places, which will be transformed in social hubs, for multifunctional benefits.

When you watch the three-hour broadcast of this public hearing, whether you are on the proposal side or the opposition, one thing is loud and clear in both parties, the lack of opportunities and the fear of young people leaving. The youth migration. When you look at studies over the last years, a growing percentage, of young people show interest in wanting to stay where they have been brought up. Unfortunately, they cannot do so due mainly to the lack of available affordable housing. The only housing is private rent which starts at £650 and whomever wishes to consider buying will need to return after at least 10 years as the market price keeps rising, now above the average of £175.000, and this, in rural areas! We cannot allow the situation to get worse. Something needs to be done to give the youth more hope and perspective to make a living in their beloved home environment.

A golf course creates jobs. But is this the job we educate our children for? Have we become that desperate that we lose our very pride and send our children to American jobs, that were once on our own land? Should we not instead support them to understand the land and promote higher education where their skills could be of very use to claim its assets and build a new future that recognises it’s potential? The first Coul Links golf course proposal was offered to the Scottish Government, then formally refused in February 2020. The decision was refused based on protecting world-class environmental assets. Can the Scottish Government hold the same stand this time?

Striving to own our heritage should become our new goal. Now is the time to introduce land and tax law. Examples have been suggested by local residents, where there are no taxes on a small holding to certain max. I do not think I have to mention that young adults and young families will have extra exemption as well being born/resident-based. Land and estates above 50 hectares will need to proof of evidence for committing to environmental restoration and legislation and work together with respect to the land as well accept national legal responsibility through higher tax band. This responsibility then to be judged and approved or disapproved in taxes/law. The billionaires and corporates who decide to only see our natural assets as their extended garden, who only focus on satisfaction and desire, who live a hyperreality and play in competition, they will not bring back the land we so much wish for and reminds me to the last verse of ‘To The Mouse’.

The whole of Scotland is ageing. The +65 age is slightly higher in Sutherland and Caithness than anywhere else in Scotland, partly to migration of retired people. The social workforce is here like everywhere else in Scotland the biggest workforce. The sacrifice for living in the Highlands is long-distance driving, with sometimes no mobile/internet reception, all kinds of weather and dark hours in winter, a pharmacist that can be 40 miles away and with no base office in the most rural areas. In the social care with not enough staff this is the perfect fit for a very challenging and underpaid job. New roles are highly needed which would solely support job training. Registration is regulated and requires the qualification. Community developments like health and social hubs would be very welcomed. When these hubs would offer an overnight facility in the most rural places that would benefit the social sector and tackle local challenges.

Accommodation and Food service is the second force up North. There is also a remarkable number of self-employment 8.6% (2020 data HIE) and small business. Population is declining and attracting young families is a strong motivation for economic stability, as the actual concern is the low birth-rate. So, instead of developing a competition golf course where there is a protected world-known SSSI, Ramsar, and SPA site, it would be a far more interesting perspective to create modern sustainable communities with their own distinctiveness and local cultural identity, where our future students would love to come or return to, become their own entrepreneurs and where families could boom, raise their children and claim that spectacular landscape with their heart. Where properties will go back to local communities and the council and not stand empty for most of the year. We need these properties! And we need them now! For our own future families.

The government could work better with rural communities with offering a more marketing approached guidance with possibilities to community development, such as leaflets, more posters with wider and broader info about available funds, training, workshops and not forgetting local involvement in restoration of the proudly large number of SSSIs (94 in Sutherland) and other sites designated for their natural history value (SPA; RAMSAR; SACs) through volunteering and potentially earning new qualifications. When new job roles are offered to the HC for overseeing the renewable developments, where are the new roles for Ecologists and Environmental Surveyors who are overseeing the SSSI sites which are highly under pressure? And where is the local council and government support to young existing Ecologists who fight for Scotland against big corporations, while doing their job the best they can and face many challenging confrontations? They worked hard to get that degree! They deserve some proud and dignity! Further, social care should be supported with a bonus on top of their salary in certain rural area postcodes, so that challenging tasks are rewarded, and re-assurance is given to road safety and to lone working safety with the offer of a hub accommodation.

In addition, funding towards buying existing properties and make them community owned should be further pushed and take a high priority. Community owned land and properties can create new opportunities for the workforce with optional housing and besides, gives an opportunity for young people to be closely involved in their own local environment. A law enforcement with a Land Tax system will benefit the housing market, encourage estate responsibilities and should restore the natural beauty of the Highlands. This can only happen when all SSSI sites will be fully left alone, restored and be again ‘untouched’. Too many sites have been touched, bad time!

Scotland holds our hearts, it pumps through our blood, we are proud of our natural heritage and rich history. For centuries this has been passionately expressed in poems, songs and many writings. And many of us will agree with JK Rowling’s description “It is one of the most hauntingly beautiful places in the world, the history is fascinating, the men are handsome and the whisky is delicious.” or Julia London’s experience “There are few places in my life that I’ve found more ruggedly beautiful than the Highlands of Scotland. The place is magical - it’s so far north, so remote, that sometimes it feels like you’ve left this world and gone to another.” And who can deny Robert Burns’ famous poem ‘My Heart is in The Highlands’? When 8 national conservation organisations opposing the Coul Links golf course, then we really need to question what we do in the future with our SSSI sites and other protected areas in the North. To value it’s importance and restore their beauty, emphasise needs to be legally enforced as the only free site of Land tax and additional protection. All other properties under Land Tax. Options here to look into ring fencing these taxes for SG purchase and future eco-friendly developments to benefit the Highlands and Islands. Then we can look at our highest potential, to protect the H&I as a Special Protected Area (SPA) and claim it’s hugely recognised natural beauty and heritage as our own and proudly hold this in coming generations.

We can lift up the spirit of the land. Diversity in innovation is possible. Natural and physical.

Two weeks ago, I visited the remains of Rosal, the Clearance village in Strathnaver. The silent past of devastation showing through the rubbles of the remains. On the opposite of the river, along the road is another sign of the Strathnaver history Trail. It is the memorial of the people who were brutally forced away in the early 1800s. A small stone wall, 5 x 5 feet with a memorial plate in a small grassy field. To think that up Ben Braggie stands an enormous statue of 100 feet tall from the person who caused this all, it is the time we turn history around and claim these places back with dignity. Reclaim our Scottish Natural Heritage. Rosal has as of October 2024 become in Scottish Community Ownership. The future can only become better now. This is the start of history turning.
Larisa Jansen
Easter Ross