ALLOTMENT schemes have proved a hit in communities across the Highlands, where more and more people have shown a real appetite for growing their own.

The establishment of plots in Alness went from strength to strength with demand such that a waiting list was drawn up for those unable to secure space. Elsewhere, community gardens have helped bring people together to share skills and tips and work for a common good.

Several years in the planning, a scheme for Tain has finally got off the ground despite the legitimate concerns of some residents living close to the 1.3-hectare site.

It will now be up to Tain Community Council, which this week secured planning permission to press ahead with its plans, to show that it can be a good neighbour in taking the scheme forward.

It's somewhat ironic, and a continued sign of our dependence on the motor car, that some of the proposed plots have already been sacrificed for additional parking spaces. The amount of productive land lost to concrete continues apace despite an ever-growing need for sources of secure food supplies.

That niggle aside, it's to be hoped that the allotments will soon provide a valuable productive and recreational outlet for scores of households in the royal burgh.

Tain is poised to become a magnet for supermarket shoppers when Asda next year joins the big retailers already open for business there. Plotters will find out for themselves though that there's nothing quite so satisfying as producing some of your own food through honest toil.

AND while we're on the land, to speak, hats off to the organisers of the Scottish Ploughing Championships hosted on the Black Isle last weekend.

Ploughmen from across the UK, and further afield, offered an eye-opener into an ancient art which has moved with the times and technology available. As our report on P12 shows, it was a keenly contested affair which once again helped throw the spotlight on Ross-shire.