The former owner of Ulva has claimed he was “kept in the dark” and “stonewalled” during the community buyout of the island.
Criticising both the buyers and the Scottish Government, Laird Jamie Howard questioned the tactics involved and accused the SNP of “ignoring its elected duty”.
The community buyout of the island, located north-west of Mull, was finalised last week as the Howard family relinquished their private ownership of the site after 70 years.
It came after the government prohibited Mr Howard from selling on the open market as a community interest had been lodged by the North West Mull Community Company.
The Howards eventually sold to the community company in a deal worth £4.650million.
However, the family have now released a statement taking sweeping blows at those who aided the publicly funded “takeover” of Ulva.
The statement claims: “The strong indication is that the driving impulse for this acquisition has been, and is, not so much for the welfare of Ulva and its resident community but more to satisfy the long held personal ambitions of a few relatively local individuals on the island of Mull; to benefit SNP party politics and prejudices, and to feed media headlines.
“On multiple occasions, during the course of the acquisition procedure, the legislative guidelines (as published by this Scottish Government) were cast aside, with key, mandated deadlines mendaciously ignored by Ministers and Scottish civil servants in order to coincide with keynote party speeches by the First Minister and to facilitate the acquisition of Ulva, regardless of the merits or otherwise, or the fiscal viability of the community plans.
“It entirely ignored its elected duty to be even-handed to all Scottish constituents.”
The community deal was backed by an unprecedented Scottish Land Fund award of £4.415million.
The shortfall was made up by fundraising and a £500,000 donation from Australian company, the MacQuarie Group, which takes its name from Lachlan MacQuarie - the Scottish soldier who became the country’s founding father.
Criticising the buyers, the statement adds: “At every stage of the proceedings Jamie Howard was kept in the dark and stonewalled with no access or recourse to official information or assistance.
“Their dissemination of false and misleading information through the general media has been astonishing and disappointing.
“We hope the SNP party activists concerned treat the long-standing Ulva residents with respect despite their track record thus far.”
The Howards also took a swing at Argyll SNP MSP Mike Russell, accusing him of “indulging in ubiquitous and tedious SNP partisan sound bites”instead of communicating with his constituents.
The statement went on: “Time will tell if Ulva continues to be the rural, natural beauty that it is today.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Scotland’s land is a valuable asset which should benefit the many. The SNP is committed to empowering communities through land reform – enabling them to determine their own futures.
“Ulva was once home to over 800 people, and now has only a handful. This is a story which is, sadly, all too common to many of our islands.
“We wish the local community the very best as they seek to regenerate and repopulate the island of Ulva.”
The North West Mull Community Company declined to comment.
Mike Russell said he received no contact from the family at any point to discuss their concerns, but would have been happy to meet with them.
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