Council sets out ‘CAT’ process for communities 

Highland Council has published its Community Asset Transfer (CAT) process to help guide communities that wish to request community asset transfers of publicly owned buildings or land. 

The Community Empowerment Act (Scotland) 2015 gives community bodies the right to make requests for ownership, lease, management or use of public owned buildings or land whether or not they are available for sale or are deemed surplus to requirements by the owning body. 

Chairman of the Council's Communities and Partnerships Committee, Cllr Hamish Fraser said: "Public bodies such as The Highland Council are required under the Act to assess requests transparently against a specified list of criteria, and to agree to requests unless there are reasonable grounds for refusal. 

"The Council has now published documentation about (and the process for) submitting an asset transfer request to the authority on the council’s website at www.highland.gov.uk/cat."

Further information is also available by email from cat@highland.gov.uk