A Western Isles man who has been at the forefront of community land ownership in Scotland has been made a CBE.
However, David Cameron, who is a voluntary director of Community Land Scotland, said he felt a bit uncomfortable with accepting the honour.
Mr Cameron, 68, who owns the garage at Tarbert on Harris, said: “It has been awarded for services to community land ownership in Scotland, but that is the result of work that has not necessarily been done by me.
“It’s been done by hundreds of people in the communities from one end of Scotland to the other.
“They are the ones who work every day to make things better for their communities.
“The award is as much theirs as mine as I just happen to be the person who sent a few letters or said something on their behalf.”
He added that he was a strong believer in the concept of community landownership, where the people are in favour.
And this theory was put into practice by his involvement in the community purchase of North Harris in 2003 and its subsequent development.
Community Land Scotland, which is an umbrella organisation for community landowners, was set up in 2010 and Mr Cameron was chairman for the first five years.
He pointed out that it had 17 members at the start and now represents almost 70 communities.
He said: “We had to get community empowerment through community land ownership back on the agenda and I think we have achieved that.
“We now need to look at how to deal with some of the empty areas that are ripe for development, but there’s no community left.
“I think that in years to come repopulation or resettlement of these areas must be on the agenda.”
