ALMOST a year after the islanders took control, members of the Commons Scottish Select Committee yesterday visited Eigg, an island community which has carved out a new future for itself.

However the committee's thoughts were also with a community to the north-west, Knoydart, whose fortunes seem to be in decline as Eigg's clearly rise.

The head teacher of Knoydart's Primary School yesterday telephoned her local MP to say that the power to the school was being seriously disrupted. The estate's hydro scheme has been damaged and successive estate owners have failed to secure its repair.

The estate denied this, but it served to fuel the local outrage felt at the sacking of the Knoydart Estate manager Ian Robertson, one of the first acts of the new owners.

Mr David Stewart (Labour - Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) whose constituency embraces both communities, yesterday promised to take Knoydart's fight to the Governor of the Bank of Scotland.

The bank is the main creditor of Knoydart Peninsula Ltd and sanctioned its recent sale with reported liabilities of #1.4m there-by prejudicing any serious investment in Knoydart. There on the north shore of Loch Nevis the 70 people are still struggling to secure their future.

Like the Eigg islanders, they want to buy the estate, but are frustrated by the vagaries of a market that allows anyone to buy such communities. The community-led Knoydart Foundation had a bid of #800,000 refused.

The parliamentary visit to Eigg had been organised by Mr Stewart. He was very excited by Eigg's potential and was determined to work closely with local residents to improve the quality of life on the island and rebuild its infrastructure. The main priority was to upgrade the jetty facilities on the island as well as those on Muck, Canna and Rum and to provide a modern car ferry for the Small Isles.

Mr Stewart said that while Eigg provided a model example of community land ownership at work, the uncertain future for Knoydart Estate reinforced the need for radical land reform.

Mr Stewart said: ''The people of Knoydart have been let down by the existing legislation. They have the ability and the vision to promote sustainable development on the peninsula but are being prevented from doing so because of the current ownership of the estate. He added: ''That is an example of social and economic feudalism which is outdated as we approach the new millennium.''

Mr Stewart said he had been asked to visit Knoydart and he hoped to do so in a fortnight.

The chairman of the Knoydart Foundation Charlie King said: ''It is very good news that David Stewart will seek a meeting with the bank. The community has been trying unsuccessfully for some time to find out the bank's view of this matter.''

Meanwhile on Eigg the committee led by its chairman David Marshall, (Labour - Glasgow Shettleston) were shown the fruits of new investment since the islanders' successful purchase of the island for #1.5m last year.

A new visitor centre is nearing completion and a full-time development officer is in post.