Lorne MacLeod to replace David Cameron at Community Land Scotland

Lorne MacLeod has been elected as the new chairman of the representative body for community landowners in Scotland.

Mr MacLeod was selected to chair Community Land Scotland, which has 57 members throughout Scotland, at its recent AGM. Margaret Nicolson, chair of Urras Baile Fhlòdaigearraidh (Flodigarry Township Trust, Skye), and Margaret McSporran, chair of the Isle of Gigha Heritage Trust were also elected new board members.

As a founding member of Community Land Scotland, MacLeod has had an extensive involvement in community land ownership stretching back to the 1990s.

He was most recently a board member of the 93,000 acre community owned estate covering the islands of Eriskay, South Uist and Benbecula in the Western Isles.

He is a chartered accountant who specialises in working with charities and community businesses and is also a director of a retail and distribution business based in Skye.

Of his appointment, he said: “I am delighted to take over as chairman of Community Land Scotland at this time, with a community empowerment bill moving forward through parliament, and a new land reform bill forthcoming.

“There are greater opportunities now than ever before for communities to take forward the ownership of land in order to sustain their communities through job creation, new business growth, housing construction, and delivering the development of a wide range of community projects.”

MacLeod replaces David Cameron of the Isle of Harris who was the first chairman of Community Land Scotland and retired from the role at the AGM.

There are currently over 500,000 acres of land in Scotland in community ownership, and the Scottish Government has set a target of one million acres in community land ownership by 2020.

Community Land Scotland’s members include some well known and high profile buyout groups in Eigg, Knoydart, Assynt, and Harris.