ANOTHER Scottish tenant farming family is under threat of imminent eviction having lost their security of tenure as a result of the infamous Salvesen Riddell court ruling.
A month from now – November 28 – John Paterson, a tenant of Glenree farm on the isle of Arran and his brother Ian, will be shown the door.
But next Tuesday, the Patersons will join by six other Scottish tenant farmers facing the same fate at a hearing in the Court of Session seeking compensation from the government for the historic legislative mistakes that have led them to this point.
The Paterson’s father Jim, originally from Ayrshire, moved the family to Arran in 1996 to take on the lease of the 5000-acre livestock farm with a 10-year limited partnership, which was passed on to the brothers in 2003.
The family had felt secure, but caught in the repercussions of that Salvesen Riddell ruling, landlord Charles Fforde has taken the chance to reclaim vacant possession.
Speaking to The Scottish Farmer, John said: “After the legal action in 2013, the Scottish Government led us to believe that if we were to be evicted as a result of their mistake there would be compensation. Now there’s nothing.
“We are on our own and have to pay for court action against the government. It’s all very stressful. My father took a stroke eight years ago and had another when the eviction letter came in earlier this year due to the stress.
“We don’t have any money and are selling all the stock and machinery in order to pay our debts. We are left high and dry.”
Ian added: “It is not just the farm. I’ve built up an extensive falcon breeding facility under an environmental grant which still has four years to run. I’m going to have to relocate it to a friend near Dumfries who also runs a falconry.
“The Scottish Government could sign this off at a stroke, compensate us, and put us out of our misery.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We’re committed to facilitating and funding mediation between tenant farmers and their landlords. Ministers are unable to comment on live litigation.”
Scottish Tenant Farmers Association director Angus McCall commented: “This is becoming a nightmare for John, Ian and the family and they have all paid an intolerable emotional and physical price for this, including the effect it has had on the health of the boys’ father.
“They have invested heart and soul into Glenree Farm as well as a great deal of hard cash – and undertaken one of the biggest and most ambitious environmental schemes in Scotland. This will all now be lost and the family will have to rebuild their lives.
“In common with the other tenants affected by the Salvesen Riddell remedial order, the Patersons are not only victims of bad law, but they have also been let down by the failure of the mediation process promised by the government which could have helped them remain in the farm and is now essential to allow them to achieve a satisfactory end of tenancy settlement.
“STFA is writing to the First Minister and rural economy secretary Fergus Ewing to ask them to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure justice is done and the promise of mediation honoured as soon as possible.”
Eddie Henderson, the land agent acting on behalf on all the tenants in next week’s court action, said: “Last year it was Andrew Stoddart and his family who were forced to sell their stock and machinery, and pack their lives into boxes and leave their tenanted farm.
“This year it is John and Ian Paterson of Arran, others will follow shortly. All because they followed the letter of the law. A law which the Supreme Court ruled 10 years later was legislatively incompetent.
“Government officials got it wrong then and yet were allowed to repeat and incredibly compound these failings today. Our MSPs and Parliament per the rural affairs committee were assured that in correcting government errors tenants would not be penalised.
“It appears government officials, and notably the legal department, run the government, as MSPs seem powerless to intervene and out government minister unable or unwilling to call his officials to account. 
“The Patersons trusted government officials and more so our MSPs when told they would not be penalised. Ministers can still show positive leadership by taking control and stepping forward but will they?”