Egg on their face!

SIR, – As the report from the Upper Coll Constable has to begin to sink in, all grazing committees will have to take stock of practices in the way grazing committees are being run!
Also, those that are supposed to represent crofting should take lessons to whose side they take favour so that they do not end up with egg on their face!
There are many grazing committees that are run in true honesty, that work without pay to look after shareholder interest but are always viewed with suspicion by greedy crofter shareholders. That is where good paperwork is needed, and good record keeping.
But in the workings at committee level to safeguard monies coming from public sources, a lot of things can go wrong. That is when grazing committees need support from The Crofting Commission and police,
In the past, both public bodies were experts in kicking problems into the long grass!!
I do recall while serving as clerk to Benbecula Common Grazings. A large sum of money was diverted by a shareholder; we knew the money was in transit; we never got it so we sought support from the old Crofters Commission, who advised us to place the matter in the hands of the police,
This was done, but after a considerable length of time they came back: “We found the missing monies, they are in a safe place.”
To this day we never got the monies that were due to shareholders; with compounded interest today it would be worth around £17k.
I do hope that the events of Upper Coll will be a wake up call to all crofters that are shareholders in common grazings throughout Scotland, that they take interest in the parcels of land that they think are useless and that they consider that the ones coming after will be better crofters and will be able to work the common grazings to supplement incomes.