After a 15 year ban, months of debate, public meetings and community concerns, cows have finally returned to the village street in Plockton.
Ancient and heritable land rights allowing crofters to have their beasts on the main street to the common grazing on the machair were enacted this weekend.
A 15-year agreement with the National Trust for Scotland to keep cattle off the street and beach in Plockton came to an end last November.
Crofters indicated at a public meeting, held last October that they were entitled to allow cattle back onto the thoroughfares as part of their heritable rights as members of the Plockton Grazings Committee.
A statement issued to villagers, by crofters in Plockton, said that no more than four cows would be in the village at any one time, unless crofters were moving cattle.
It said that individual crofters would be responsible for the insurance of their cows. It is understood that there has not been a risk assessment undertaken in spite of advice given to crofters by the National Trust for Scotland.
The issue was debated at a community council meeting last week where one local described the discussion on the cows as “heated.”
The resident, who did not want to be named, said: “I left the meeting feeling that I had no voice in this community. As an incomer who voiced an opinion, other than the crofters view, I felt like I was not welcome here.”
Ed Stanley, who lives in the village with his wife, said: “No-one wants to limit the rights of crofters in any way.
“But in a world that is reducing risk it would have been good to know what the increased risk to both people and property were before returning the cows to the popular village streets.”
Leading bacteriologist Professor Hugh Pennington told the Press and Journal there was an E. coli risk to young children who inadvertently put fingers in their mouths after playing in areas where the cows had been.
Professor Pennington, one of Scotland’s most highly regarded scientists, continued: “If people trample in manure and then tread that into carpets, then there is a risk that a child will touch it and put their hands in their mouth exposing themselves to risk.
“A balance has to be reached, and in an ideal world you would not have cattle on a busy street, like Plockton.”
Efforts were made to contact the spokesperson for Plockton Crofters, but at the time of going to press no one was available for comment.
