Affordable housing and woodland expansion raised by key groups in Cairngorms consultation

Highland Council has said that more needs to be done to get new housing and protect the existing stock in the strath as part of a public consultation on an important blueprint for the area for the next five years.

Local councillors will attend a special meeting online on Tuesday to formulate their final submission for the Cairngorms National Park Partnership Plan.

They have been given special dispensation for a late response ahead of the deadline this Friday for responses.

The report by Kate Lackie, the local authority's executive chief officer performance and governance, states: "The focus on housing is welcome and entirely appropriate as one of the most important priorities for the area.

"However, in addition to affordable housing there needs first to be available housing and so looking at how to increase and protect availability of housing should also be given prominence.

The Scottish Gamekeepers Association is another key group which is responding to the consultation.

It has welcomed increasing woodland cover 'where it is the right thing to do'.

But the SGA states: "The park’s explanations for why woodland expansion is an objective, in itself, requires more detail given the potential implications.

"The ‘trees for climate’ argument, for example, is an over-simplification of a multi-faceted process. The right tree, right place reasoning is good but, on the ground, what assessments are actually being made by the park to establish what is right in each circumstance?

"Insufficient work has been carried out in Scotland as a whole to identify where tree planting and regeneration will have definitive carbon benefits.

"The James Hutton Institute mapping system of woodland expansion would suggest the carbon benefits of increasing tree cover in the national park in recent times, for example, is moderate."

The SGA adds: "The promotion of more woodland, without fences, for example will continue to reduce the income of businesses who rely on providing deer stalking experiences for visitors because the sporting quarry, deer, will continue to reduce in number.

"It should be noted that there are already areas across the park with much lower deer numbers due to unprecedented heavy culling in un-

fenced forests.

"Deer stalking brings economic, community and environmental benefits.

"The park must think carefully about promoting an aim which will directly impact estate and shoot income at a time when some poor shooting years and Covid 19 have impacted these businesses financially."

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