"The Northern Times"

The crofters aim is to raise a "hostile" buy-out of thier 3000acres of common grazing - part of the 9400- acre Durness estate - and set a precedent for other crofting communities faced with landlords unwilling to sell. A crucial factor is wheather the Scottish Parlament opts for the "lukewarm" land reform package originally outlined, or goes for the beefed-up proposal suggested more recently.

The Crofters allies include a number of SMPs, including Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross member Jamie Stone. "Its clear to me that Durness Estate is a supreme example of bad land ownership and managment in the North," he told the Northern Times on Wednesday. "I have been deeply impressed by the efforts made by the Laid community to pul themselves up by thier bootstraps, but it is clear that thier endevours are in the face of a completely anonymous group of owners who are not faintly interested in helping this part of the Highlands. Mr Stone continued: "In view of this, I think the Scottish Parlament should treat the Durness case as an acid test of how it intends to approach land reform". "Any failure to deliver on the Durness issue would call into question the whole notion of land reform.

Laid was a small and remote community, that was dying on its feet, and if we dont grasp this opportunity it is still in danger of going back into decline. I shall be pushing this issue in every way I can." In the forefront of the successful efforts to revitalise the community over the past few years has been Laid Common Grazing Committee. With the approval of the Crofters Commision, it has a rather wider remit than most grazing committees, and has played an active role in promoting local developments beyond the purely agricultural. "Laid was nearly dead seven years ago and was down to only three resident famlies," said committee chairman Kenneth MacKenzie Hillcoat. "But we have come back from the dead. There are now seven resident famlies, and three more are expected to move in over the next few years. We will then have tripled our resident population in the last ten years and there are not many villages in the Highlands can say that." He puts the growth down to the success of tourism initiatives and projects such as oyster farming in the pure watters of Loch Eriboll - both of which he says would be threatend by any superquarry development. "It is the sword of Damocles over everything we are trying to do," said the retired oil executive. "Our objective is to make sure Laid does not risk disappearing ever again, and to do this we are using the common grazings to promote projects such as a heritage trail, a native woodland project, and a TV ariel as we have no TV reception here. "These are well past the planning stage and we are now trying to impliment them. We are also looking at wind power and things like mushroom growing and various agricultural projects to make sure we dont lose touch with livestock completely in all its diversification."

To bring thier ambitious plans to fruition and achieve thier ultimate aim - to see all 18 crofts in Laid permanently inhabited again - the committee wants to lead a community buy out of the common grazings. But they are convinced Vible SA are interested only in extracting minerals from the area, and will never willingly sell so long as the possibility of a superquarry remains. Another main objective for the committee is to have the superquarry deleated from the Highland Councils draught Structure Plan, as recommended by independant consultants in 1994. Otherwise they fear that, even if thier "hostile" buy-out succeeds, the price they have to pay will be artificially inflated.