I am inviting everyone that wants to talk to me to contact me. I am more than willing to talk with everyone!

Public Apologies

Dear people in the Sleat Community of The Isle of Skye, Scotland

I am Ludwig Appeltans. I was a Local Community Councillor of the Sleat Community Council on the Isle of Skye.  (SCC).
(This page is written in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the SCC )

During the SCC meeting of June 21th 2022, all the councillors publicly called for my resignation.  You can read more about that below.   What followed next I can only describe as a pile-up.

Centrally to that pile-up, a prominent member of our local community: Mr Duncan MBE spoke up and has kindly suggested that I should apologise.

Mr Duncan MBE explained that he has significant experience in autism as a parent and he kindly suggested that perhaps I should look into how my autism may affect my ability to apologise. I assume that he suggests that he thinks I may not be able to recognise when I do wrong.

Dr Andrew, another prominent member of the community spoke out to back the call Mr Duncan MBE was making. This gentleman, as I understand it, has significant expertise in political matters. He proclaimed that he didn’t need to see any evidence, that the MBE from Mr Duncan MBE was enough.

Imagine what this actually means! It seems that it is being suggested that I am so completely out of touch with reality that I am completely oblivious to all the things I am doing wrong and need to apologise!

WOW!

This may be one the biggest lessons I could possible learn in my entire life! What a great opportunity for me to learn something about myself. 

I asked for a chance to meet for clarification what Mr Duncan MBE actually means, but he has declined to take part in any meeting. Dr Andrew also has kindly declined to meet with me.  

All of this of course does not stop me in my search for lessons to learn, for reasons to apologise, instead all of this makes it even more important for me.

Of course, if I need to, I will apologise! This is an important matter to me. I am always keen to learn and grow and make amends when I need to.

Since Mr Duncan MBE nor Dr Andrew, want to explain to me why they think I should apologise, I am reaching out to the local community.

I would like to invite you all to explain to me all the reasons why I need to apologise.

Please let me know your reasons here.

I have already started with investigating any possible reasons, distilled from my massive treasure trove of stories and allegations I collected over the last 7 years:

 

1: I stole the land from Sandra Mary Masson or I deceived her

This matter is now part of a court case Sandra has initiated. Which means I can’t comment on this here right now. This will result in a public court hearing, so I will report about this issue in due course.

I can’t apologise yet. I don’t think I need to. Decision pending

2: I stole the land from David Ritchie

This is an interesting issue. Mr Ritchie believed he was a direct descendant of Jesus and that the Bible happened in Scotland not Palestine. There are a few other such outlandish claims. Similarly he believed that he was the true owner of Rubha Phoil.

It is not so easy to steal land from someone. In Scotland one only owns land if their name is on the deeds. It is impossible to buy land without the consent of the person who’s name is on the deeds.

I don’t think I need to apologise as I did not steal land.

3: I evicted local people from the residential house they were occupying on Rubha Phoil.

This is not true. I never send them an eviction notice to vacate the house that I bought and wanted to live in. They left of their own accord. Evicting people without an eviction notice is a criminal offence. Since I never got accused of such, needless to say that I did not commit a criminal offence.
They were also not local people.

I did want to live in that house but I couldn’t. The tenants were claiming that there was no rent agreement and as such I couldn’t evict them. There was an initial rent agreement signed between the tenants and the charity that one of the tenants was the chair of. The charity regulating body has ordered this to be conflict of interest and had told them to change that. They started paying rent to the previous owner without a new agreement being signed or with the new agreement ‘disappearing’ from the office of the charity. So technically they were correct: there was no valid rent agreement. So it would have been illegal for me to evict them.
They were refusing to pay me rent, they were not allowing me access to the house to do my duty as a landlord to do essential repairs such as getting the electrics and gas certified, fix leaks etc.
Eventually they left on their own accord.

I did not evict these people from the house which I bought to live in. It is not wrong to buy a house and want to live in it. I offered to find solutions. They refused to work with me. I don’t think I need to apologise.

4: I forced the closure of the shop the same people in 3 were running on Rubha Phoil

This shop should never have been opened. It was a breach of all sorts of legislations such as health and safety, building warrants, charity law due to conflict of interest etc. As such it was unfair competition with other local shops who were spending lots of money and resources to operate within the law. I did not close it down. I told the charity that was managing this shop that I as owner could not take responsibility for this shop. Upon realised that was they were doing could end them in serious trouble, they decided to close it down.

I did not close down the shop, the Charity did. With good reasons. I don’t think I need to apologise

5: I closed down Rubha Phoil to the general public

I, we did indeed close down Rubha Phoil to the Public and opened it for members only.

To be clear I am within my full rights to close down Rubha Phoil under the legislation. I invited a previous outdoor access officer to explain the legislation and asked them to make sure I am operating within the law. I am stopping strangers from walking between our buildings, in our gardens, on our campsite and in our caravan site. Not on ‘the land’ of Scotland. There is no core path through Rubha Phoil. The beach remains accessible to the public of course.

I am really sad I need to do this.

I am not excluding nice people to access Rubha Phoil. Instead I am inviting them!

 

 

 

Please remember that you are very welcome to register on the Virtual Village as a member to get access to Rubha Phoil. It can be as cheap as £1 and a chat for a life long membership. 

You can read more about that here.

 

I am not willing to apologise for the need to feel safe and for protecting my home, our Rock and our community against malicious actions and vandalism. I don’t feel I need to. I did not invite the aggression.

I do apologise for the inconvenience it brings to have to register as a member for £1 for life.

6: I made Rubha Phoil dog free

When I bought the land in 2016, I made a commitment to the ecosystem to look after it as best I could. Dogs, or rather, irresponsible dog owners do not fit into that picture. I tried everything else I could think of but failed to find any other way forward.

I did indeed make Rubha Phoil dog free. You can read more about that here.

I don’t think I need to apologise. People are welcome to visit without their dogs. Dogs can go for a walk plenty other places.

7: I made Rubha Phoil alcohol and drugs free

I apologise to the alcoholic drinkers and drug users amongst us for excluding you while you have alcohol or drugs in your veins. You are welcome to come when you are sober. We don’t feel safe otherwise. Too many people who have had a drink behave unpredictably. 

8 I have installed hidden CCTV on my property

 

I understand your concerns Karla. Thank you for raising them. 
Everyone who is a member of Rubha Phoil and who is welcome to enjoy Rubha Phoil at their leisure will receive an updated map with the current CCTV locations on it. 
We ourselves too do not wish to be filmed when we are enjoying our own forest. The kind of people that come to Rubha Phoil are the kind of people who value privacy a lot. I hope that this can reassure you that the forest can be enjoyed without privacy concerns. 
To further reassure you, we hope that our privacy policy and our registration with the ICO to make sure we are operating fully legally helps to reassure you. 

Here are the reasons why we have CCTV on our property:

1: The people who were engaged in a hostile land take over in 2016-17 made false reports to the police as you can see in the video below. 
We are recording CCTV to protect ourselves against such allegations.

 

2: We have had an estimated 15 occasions where people unknown had vandalised something on our Rock since 2016. Sometimes it is damage to trees or interference with the otter holts. Mostly it is theft or vandalism of our signs in which we ask people to respect our privacy. Or to our fences or to our gates.  Our vehicles have also been damaged and sabotaged on 3 different occasions. 
This image below is one of those occasions: It was really easy to follow the tracks of these 2 visitors. They stole and or ripped out every sign they came across. Including our educational displays. 
We want to know who does that kind of thing. This is important information for us. We want to make sure that everyone we give free access to the Rock as a member can be trusted. And we want to try to catch evidence so that we can report any criminal activity to the police. 

 
3: Our ducks have been attacked by dogs at least 3 times! 
Not just by any dogs. By dogs that have been breed for the specific purpose of killing ground birds. 
We want to know who owns these dogs so that we can educate these people or claim compensation from them in case something serious were to happen.

4: The previous owner of Rubha Phoil and her family have been waging a campaign of bullying against Ludwig and to the project as a whole. You can see this in the reasons above.
There have been 4 criminal convictions already. 
3 of those are for members of the family of the previous owner.

The 4th one was for one of the members of the group engaged in the hostile land take over.

(None of the convictions are for any linked to the Rubha Phoil community.)

We want to monitor who comes and goes on the Rock to protect ourselves and our property.

5: We want to monitor our wild life.
In this picture below you can see an image of a gorgeous Red Deer Stag. We want to know which deer are coming on the Rock. So that we can teach them to stay away. (We have been very successful in our approach.)
Similarly, we want to monitor and watch our otters and other wildlife.

 

I don’t feel I need to apologise for installing CCTV to make sure we are safe.

9: I was shouting at people on the beach for no reason

I did indeed shout towards people on the beach.
Their dog was trying to kill my ducks. The dog was a spaniel.
Spaniels are breed and have been selected over many hundreds of years specifically to kill birds.
Now they are pets, living with people in their homes, but their DNA is still compelling them to kill birds.

The people in question were more than 150m away on the other side of Ardvasar bay, not looking after their dog. The dog was out of their sight and out of their control.

This is illegal. The punishment for dogs scaring life stock is very severe. 

I didn’t call the police on them, despite having the evidence below.
Instead I shouted at them because normal speech would not have reached their ears.
I shouted at them, making sure to shout slowly to make sure the words were audible:
Keep your dog under control please.
They shouted back ‘Sorry’

 

I do not believe I need to apologise

10: I released transcripts of conversations:

I did indeed release transcripts of conversations I recorded without permission. Not out of malice, out of concern for our local democracy. It is clear that local democracy is high jacket by certain people who are working hard to increase the flow of traffic and increase the numbers of tourists and cruise ships.
I tried everything else I could think of before I published the transcripts.

I will reveal these transcripts soon

a: I released transcripts of a conversation between myself and the Chair of the previous Sleat Community Council. I was trying to rectify governance issues I had identified (Which have been admitted) when I was a Community Councillor myself. All I achieved was the opposite. I got bullied and accused of being a bully. I can easily proof that all I did was acting in good faith and will keep doing so. Our local democracy is too important to be allowed to be controlled by one man.
For now, enjoy the following:

The transcripts are here: https://www.earth-ways.co.uk/transcript-scc-1/

b:

I have already apologised and apologise again for the upset it caused to the people in question who were exposed by me. It made them look dishonerable in public I can’t take responsibility for that dishonerable behaviour though.

11: Not doing anything as a Local Community Councillor in the SCC

I was unable to do anythink as all my contributions were blocked and hindered by the people above. I tried to do my bit, but was unable to do so.

I don’t feel the need to apologise. I did do something after all. I tried to rescue our democracy. I tried my best to do more.

12: Making the life of the Secretary and his wife miserable for a long time.

I tried to fix the local democracy that was high-jacked by the secretary. That is not the same as making their life miserable. More will be revealed. 

I did not make their life miserable, I do not feel the need to apologise

13: Mark

This is an issue I would like to discuss with the family involved in person.

14: Bringing ‘dodgy’ people into our community.

I don’t think I need to apologise for the behaviour of other adults. Everyone is responsible for their own behaviour.

Rubha Phoil had a reputation before I bought it that attracted people with mental health issues and who were running from the law. I had to work hard to change that.
I don’t think anyone I invited committed a criminal offence, but some difficulties were caused in the local community after I evicted them from Rubha Phoil for ‘dodgy’ behaviour and they stayed behind in the local community.

I do apologise for the mistake I made to invite them to stay with us. I have learned lessons and we now have a much more robust selection procedure. Everyone who comes to stay here needs to go through rigorous interviews, agree to policies and needs to step into a signed agreement with us. Since then, this issue has not repeated itself.

15: Bullying the local community councillors

This is nonsense.
If I really was abusive, why didn’t they use the existing policy to evict me?
These are false allegations. I did not bully them. The opposite it true. I can and will prove it soon.
I understand that it is upsetting to have transcripts of meetings ‘leaked’ for the benefit to protect democracy, that however is not abuse. That is how politics should be: democratic. Exposing ‘governance issues’ is not abuse. It is the duty of every elected official to protect democracy.

More details will follow soon.

Mr Duncan Macinnes MBE is upset that I dishonour his MBE

Mr Duncan MBE has contributed hugely to the Gaelic community, the arts, the music through his involvement of setting up a charity I won’t name. He most certainly deserves recognition and to be honoured for that.
That he decided to accept to become a Member of the British Empire is his choice.
It is my opinion that it is weird to accept such an award, considering the damage the British Empire has done to the Gaelic culture and other indigenous cultures around the world. That is an opinion I am allowed to have and do not feel the need to apologise for.
I respect people like Benjamin Zephaniah for refusing such honours.