Enforcement and education key to Glenmore issues

We were interested to read John Davidson’s interview with Paul Hibberd, of Forestry and Land Scotland (Strathy, June 30) regarding pressure on tourist hotspots at Glenmore.

We have a great deal of sympathy for landowners and land managers struggling with damage caused by irresponsible access to their land.

While the ‘right to roam’ is a term widely used, a better term is a “right of responsible access” – if you are not behaving responsibly, you do not have a right of access.

Ignoring signs not to light a fire during a time of high fire risk is far from responsible, as is damaging the local environment to find fuel for your fire.

Not all problems are linked to access rights, such as bad parking.

Access rights do not extend to motorised vehicles but parking can be a major issue particularly when it is done in such a way that it blocks access for locals to their own houses or for emergency vehicles to extinguish the fire which should not have been lit.

The answer is additional resources to enforce what legislation is already in place, and to educate people.

This is something for which we have been pushing for a number of years and Edward Mountain MSP echoed our call for increased resources at First Minister’s Questions on 8th June.

While some individuals, particularly if fuelled by alcohol, will do their own thing regardless of any signs, others may simply not realise the impact of their actions and will stop if it is pointed out to them.

This is where increased numbers of rangers on the ground can help.

Wilful damage to another’s property is already covered by the criminal legislation so we need to get better at using all the legal tools at our disposal to deal with irresponsible behaviour.

As with the post-pandemic Visitor Management Strategy for Scotland, it is going to take a co-ordinated multi agency approach to tackle these problems properly.

Scotland is stunning and it is good that people are outside experiencing it but we need to recognise that problems can arise and it’s long overdue that we properly resourced outdoor access management for the long-term benefit of visitors, residents and the land itself.

Richard Barron

Chief operating officer

ScotWays

Annandale Street

Edinburgh.

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Miniscule CO2 in our atmosphere

Roy Turnbull (Strathy letters, June 29) is wrong as to the proportion of man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.

It is much lower than the values he quotes. Perhaps he ‘cherry-picked’ them. No mathematician, I searched the internet.

The answers are much lower than those derived from his convoluted arithmetic and nearer to my quoted value of less than five per cent for the proportion of man-made CO2 in the air.

The balance of CO2, more than nine-tenths, comes from natural sources.

The clear inference is that the amount of man-made CO2 is vanishingly small. That is neither ‘misinformation’ nor, heaven help us, ‘lies’, as he virtually libellously alleges.

I refer to seven reports of separate authors’ findings. However, whether or not the numbers chosen by Mr Turnbull are closer to the truth really doesn’t matter because each of the values leads to the same conclusion: the atmosphere’s man-made CO2 is miniscule in amount.

Attempts to decarbonise, as in net zero, are inevitably futile. Huge costs in financial and societal terms could be saved were de-carbonisation ended.

Charles Wardrop

Viewlands Rd West

Perth.

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Missing the rather large elephant in room on climate change

It was a very well researched and informative letter from Roy Turnbull about CO2 levels but his rudeness to Charles Wardrop was not necessary. (Letters - Misinformation being spread at CO2 levels, June 29).

Changes in CO2 levels are obviously caused by mankind so why did Roy Turnbull not mention the very large elephant in the room.

In 1750, the date he uses for his CO2 starting point, the world population was 791 million; 1900 1.7 billion; 1950 2.6 billion; 1980 4.5 billion; 2000 6.1 billion; 2023 8 billion; 2050 9.8 billion and could be 11.2 billion by 2100.

Since it is people who create greenhouse gases what remedy would Mr Turnbull suggest to combat global warming especially given hundreds-of-millions of people attend musical events football, rugby, motor racing, athletics, tennis, golf and more which are a major part of our lives and entertainment?

Would Mr Turnbull please work out their total carbon footprint and provide his recommendations?

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow.

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Former spin doctor casts some well worn lines

Charlie Whelan casts some well worn lines

In his recent column Charlie Whelan once again focuses on the Atlantic salmon or more specifically on the fate of the Atlantic salmon in the Spey or even more specifically still on the threat to his enjoyment of his pursuit of the Atlantic salmon.

Of course the survival of this king of fish is hugely important not just for the species itself but for how it is indicative of the health of our rivers.

But Mr Whelan is guilty of reducing complexity to attacks on his favourite targets – Scottish Water, SEPA, the Spey Dam and the apposite estate owner.

Where is the consideration of changing rainfall patterns? Is not some of the water flow problem to be attributed to reduced snow accumulation and its subsequent melting? How has the reduction of eel numbers affected the river’s health?

Are goosanders predations a significant problem? What about historic overfishing at the Spey’s mouth. Perhaps and most likely is climate change’s effect on the temperature of the Atlantic.

Mr Whelan has a history of unsubstantiated attacks on Scottish Water. And this at a time when Scottish Water, a public company, is particularly favourably regarded in contrast to the chaos of the privatised system down south.

Does he not remember that it was the strong Labour administration of Strathclyde that forestalled a similar outcome in Scotland.

Not for the first time he has a go at the existence of the Spey Dam and its owners. But it’s well documented that welcome improvements in the conditions to allow greater salmon survival have been continuing for some time not least with the joint cooperation of the Jahama Estate and his other bête noire, SEPA.

In blaming Scottish Water for the absence of control of water resources there is implied a lack of water storage – a lack of dams. On the other hand he calls for the removal of the Spey Dam. Has it been the key problem for most of its near century long existence?

Some powerful lairds – favoured by Mr Whelan? – would also seek the removal of dams. Is there not at least a chance of unintended consequences?

Mr Whelan, a voice for the Union and former Labour Party spokesperson would do well to remember that UK national resilience strategy drove the developments of which the Spey Dam was a part and that our hydro developments were driven by the man widely regarded as the greatest Labour politician of the 20th Century – Tom Johnston.

But perhaps Mr Whelan has no great loyalties to the UK or Labour.

Shallow spinning, though, is surely no way to try to land the Bradáin eolais, the salmon of knowledge.

Dick Webster

Campbell Crescent

Kingussie.

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Grantown needs help

Those of us who contribute to the Strathy’s letters columns are not in a position to know if those who represent us read the messages or act upon them, but at least Drew Hendry MP wants residents of rural communities to work with him and highlight problems.

Sadly it is too late to help Grantown in so many respects: we have lost all the essential services on our doorstep, especially to the older generation.

The word ‘closure’ is a swear word in the capital of Strathspey. It tears the heart out of a community, while we wait each week for the Strathy to inform us about the next loss.

Nevertheless, we still hope that if we do raise concerns now over dangers to public such as the car parking in The Square close to the junction and the traffic lights, Mr Hendry will intervene.

And maybe our local Highland councillors could contract ‘Do It Yourself Donnie’ on Alba TV to fit a new seat at the bus shelter with the old one now gone for three years.

A much more significant loss, of course, was our local hospital worth its weight in gold. Losing Ian Charles was a big blow. With major work now being carried out on the health centre, NHS could surely utilise the hospital building to the benefit of the community.

The closure of the police station, the Post Office, three banks, Grandview, the butcher and the baker, and with more pending, it is all very demoralising for this rural community.

We have been asked to shop locally, which many of us do, but unfortunately there are now so many items simply not available in the local shops.

More than ever, we need those who represent us to investigate all our concerns – and all of them should remember that they, too, will be senior citizens in time.

Leonard Grassick

Grantown.

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