Unless crofters individually agree to suspend their peat cutting rights by way for instance of a section 5(3) agreement under the Crofters (Scotland) Act 1993 or the Land Court issues an order suspending peat cutting rights for the period of the development, peat cutting rights would remain unaffected. However, crofters might choose not to exercise any such rights where Peatland Action has decided to fund a peatland restoration scheme.
This is without prejudice to the Commission’s powers to draw up a scheme regulating the use by crofters of peat bogs in terms of section 52(9) of the 1993 Act and the power of grazings regulations to make provision for the cutting of peat.