YOUR VIEWS: Highland councillors are so out of touch with reckless charges

I believe many of us are aware of the fragility of our High Streets to threats from online shopping etc - none more so than Grantown’s.

It is therefore concerning to see that three of our own local councillors appear also to be a threat, with their insistence in forcing Highland Council charges on use of Grantown’s Square, which is part of Grantown’s Common Good Fund.

Already we have had warnings that the implementation of charges by Highland Council will drive away events such as Thunder in the Glens, the Farmers Market and the Christmas and New Year festivities.

It’s not just the extra income that these events bring to Grantown’s businesses but these events help to remind visitors of the special nature of Grantown making these visitors more likely to visit another time.

After the quietly promoted consultation by Highland Council on the issue, respondents overwhelmingly rejected the principle of Highland Council introducing charging for use of Common Good land.

Our community council also rejecting their ideas. However perversely, these three local councillors seem not willing to change their minds – so much for local democracy!

We are now faced with the crazy situation of our community council having to take legal action against the council on the matter.

It is interesting to learn that even the council’s advice to our three local councillors was ‘do not pursue this issue’, but of course they seem to think that they know what’s good for us!

If you support what our community council is doing on this matter, please consider contributing to their legal fighting fund – details are on the Community Council Facebook page or https://gofund.me/c7a7e6a1.

Gordon Bulloch

Grantown.

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When will tragedy be put to a stop?

Day after day we read of atrocities being carried out by the Israelis on the Palestinians. Day after day, our Government is silent. Why?

In the past, the Labour Party spoke out against the oppression of the Palestinians….now it is complicit with the conduct of the Israeli government.

All my long days, I have felt great compassion for the Jews and the horror of the genocide perpetrated on them. It is difficult to understand the campaign against “antisemitism”, outraged by a comment made by some ex-footballer, and yet there is nothing said about the wholesale slaughter of over 52,000 Palestinians

It is not antisemitic to call out the inhumanity of the Israeli government: their conduct should be universally condemned.

When will enough be enough?

Heera Barton

Drumguish.

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Celebrating 80th year with planting

Christian Aid, the overseas aid charity run by Britain's churches, is now 80 years old, and the fact that this follows so closely on the eightieth anniversary of VE Day is no coincidence.

It was the devastation in Europe, and the suffering of millions of people - including Germans - at the end of the war that moved church leaders in the UK to appeal for funds to help those in most distress.

A Church of Scotland minister, Rev Douglas Lister, was a chaplain with the British Army when he became aware of German refugees sheltering in ruined buildings.

There were old people and babies wrapped in newspapers for warmth in the freezing conditions. The army authorities refused to help, since that would be 'fraternising with the enemy', so Lister wrote to churches throughout Britain asking for help.

On VE Sunday in thanksgiving for peace, the churches raised £80,000, equivalent to £3 million today, for refugees throughout Europe, including our former enemies.

Christian Aid grew out of this initial effort, and today it not only raises funds to directly help people out of poverty, but campaigns for a more just world.

There is a well known saying that if you give someone a fish you feed them for a day, but if you teach someone to fish you feed them for life. But what happens when someone puts up a sign 'No Fishing'? That is why campaigning is really necessary.

To honour this work, Inverallan Church in Grantown planted a commemorative tree in the church grounds on Saturday.

Just as Christians believe that Jesus lived and died for all people, so Christian Aid, drawing its inspiration from Christ, works with and supports people of every race.

Jim MacEwan

Nethy Bridge.

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Proliferation of turbines is ruining national park

It is disappointing that so few people turned up in Tomatin to discuss the proposed Highland Wind Farm, above Kincraig, and reported in the Strathy.

Those who did would have found six wind farm development companies promoting the plastering of our hills around the western and northern boundaries of the national park with giant turbines.

The HWF development involves 19 turbines would create a massive impact on an area of great natural beauty with very high wild land and wildlife values.

Such a development, with all the characteristics of an industrial site, is inappropriate in a landscape cherished for its unspoilt character and protected as a notified Wild Land Area.

Approval of such within a substantial tract of a WLA would set a serious precedent for other WLAs in Scotland, eroding public confidence in the integrity of the planning process.

The impacts would occur not only within the development site itself but, because of the height of the proposed turbines, would also have a great impact when viewed from the surrounding area, notably the high ground within the Cairngorms National Park.

The proposed development would be highly visible from the most important mountains within the park.It would be difficult to find a worse location for a windfarm of this scale in a Scottish mountain area.

The proposed development is in an area already impacted by a substantial amount of wind farm development in the Monadliath mountains.

This planning application is close to the site of a previous application for the Allt Duine wind farm which was refused by Scottish Ministers .The current applicant has provided no justification for approving this application, apart from indicating that it is a bit further away from the national park.

The applicants suggest that their planning application could lead to various biodiversity gains .This represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the ecological status of this part of the Monadhliaths.Better control of muirburn and overgrazing by red deer at a landscape scale is what is required in this area to secure peatland recovery, regeneration of juniper etc.

The applicants are proposing impractical sticking plaster solutions which will have minimum value in a landscape which requires much more radical intervention if Scottish Government biodiversity and climate change objectives are to be met.

This planning application is one of eight wind farm proposals at planning application stage along the western or northern side of the Cairngorms National Park, sitting alongside or close to 15 existing windfarms and a further eight already consented wind farms; no other national park or equivalent protected area in any other European country is under such threat of damage and degradation of environmental values around its periphery. It is therefore obvious that this planning application, along with all the other current wind farm proposals in this area that are at application stage, must not be determined without a public inquiry led by the Scottish Government, followed by a ministerial determination.

Finally, it should be noted that approval of the HWF is not needed to meet any national objectives for renewable energy development.A refusal of planning permission for this proposed development will have no significant impact on these national objectives as there are other locations, both onshore and offshore, where these can be met without degrading Scotland’s internationally famous areas of great natural beauty.

The development of renewable energy projects is an extremely important step in meeting the challenge of climate change and decarbonising our electricity supplies.

Wind turbines are an essential part of that process. The further development of wind farms on land with huge turbines 200 metres in height is increasingly problematic when located in areas of great natural beauty.

Scotland is already seriously impacted by such developments, which have spread relentlessly through southern, central and northern Scotland.

Future approvals for such huge turbine developments on land should be focussed on areas better suited to absorb large industrial structures such as existing industrial sites and coastal ports.

Much smaller turbines, no more than 50 metres in height, should be promoted on land, in association with farm and croft areas, not high on the hills.

The main use of huge turbines should be for offshore wind farms.

Any of your readers who have a similar concern should email the Scottish Government’s Energy Consents Unit, with a copy to Highland Council, and request that a public inquiry is called into the HWF proposals and those of the other seven wind farms that currently threaten the natural beauty of our national park and its surroundings.

Dave Morris

Newtonmore.

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Trees are not natural cover for our uplands

Gus Jones is disappointed at what he claims is my “unhelpfully simplistic view on the natural vegetation of uplands.” (letter in Strathy, 8 th May 2025).

There was a warm spell until around 8,200 years ago when the tree line was claimed to be as high as 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) elevation above sea level (asl). (Anderson, 1967).

However, no evidence of tree remains have been found above 914 metres (3,000 feet) asl. (Pears, 1969).

Between 6,000 years ago and around 1,000 years ago most of the tree cover disappeared primarily due to climatic changes, not due to human activity (Birks, 2004, Fenton, 2011 and 2024).

Most of the remains of trees in our peat bogs that have been carbon dated are around 5,000 to 6,500 years old (Tipping, 2003).

By 1350 the Forestry Commission concluded only around 4% of Scotland was covered in trees.

By 1905 around 4.5% of Scotland’s land area was covered in trees. The view that Scotland was once covered in woodland that disappeared due to the influence of humans is not supported by our historical or scientific knowledge.

Today around 19% of Scotland’s land area is covered in trees. In 1913 the UK imported 93% of the forest products we consumed.

Today we import around 81% of the forest products we consume.

Government support to increase tree cover was to make our nation more self-sufficient in the forest products we consume by growing more of the produce required by our manufacturing and processing industries.

Since 1990 some woodlands when felled have been replaced with woodlands that will produce less or no wood to supply our industries.

Scotland’s ability to provide forest products is anticipated to peak within the next 20 years and decline thereafter.

Wildfires have contributed to our upland vegetation since blanket ice last disappeared around 11,600 years ago.

In contrast to some other areas of the world, in Scotland we have reduced fuel loads on our uplands by herbivore grazing and controlled burning.

By managing our uplands in this way, we have contributed to the biodiversity of these habitats, helped sustain our rural economy and reduced the impact of wildfires when they occur.

Wildfires in the world are now claimed to be second only to the burning of fossil fuels in contributing to greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

Jamie Williamson

Alvie Estate Office

Kincraig.

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No such place exists

Regarding your recent article ‘Rotary Club of Spey Valley rally to charity causes to tune of £9000’.

Where in the world is Spey Valley?

Is that near Strathspey?

Duncan McLaren

Kirkintilloch.

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Fundraising to battle council over Square

Re the issue ‘Will Grantown chip in for legal costs against Highland Council?’

A call for residents and other supporters to help financially with Crowdfunding in the battle for The Square is a good idea but money is tight.

Could a fund raising concert be organised with prominent Grantown musicians.

Then after the decision is reversed could we sue Highland Council?

Bill Steele

Grantown.

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