Prospect of civil action!

SIR, - Your interview with the current Convenor of the Crofting Commission (Kennedy's crofting crusade, TSF October 15) conflates and confuses two, or even three, separate issues; first, who should claim SRDP money; second, who is entitled to it; and third, how should shareholders get hold of it. The first is essentially an administrative issue. If the money is claimed by the grazings committee (which may be more convenient even if maybe not strictly correct), then this is obviously being done on behalf of the individual shareholders, just like a trade union executive negotiates on behalf of its members, since it is the individual shareholding that is affected. (The same applies to payments from wind farm operators or any other source). It has long been my understanding that the money therefore belongs to the individual members; and this has been confirmed to me by the executive of the Crofting Commission. (If, as the Convenor suggests, no less an authority than Sir Crispin Agnew agrees, so much the better). As to how they should claim it, the imposition of a grazings constable has been shown to be, at best, questionable and a clumsy way of trying to go about it, with no certainty of success. As things stand, it would seem the solution lies in a civil action against the grazings committee by the individual shareholder. If the legal position is made clear to grazings committees - perhaps by a test case - they would be unlikely to resist paying out, because each member of the committee could well be liable for the costs of a successful action. It just needs someone to take that step.