YOUR VIEWS: It’s been done at Pitlochry so why not Dalwhinnie?
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Given your leader in the Strathy on the Ben Alder crossing, I thought you might be interested in the attached photo taken in down town Pitlochry.
If Network Rail can do this in a busy settlement, why can't they do it at Dalwhinnie?
Peter Mackay
Dunachton Road
Kincraig.
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More fencing has been put into our way in Badenoch
I have for very many years used the access off Newtonmore Road, Kingussie between Fjeldheim and Kildrummie, and down the road past the electricity sub-station, and then along the road to the station, when travelling on foot or by bike into Kingussie.
For my wife, it was the normal route to and from her job as a teacher at the high school.
Today I went to follow the route returning on foot with my dog to find that it has been blocked off by a high steel fence, and is now impassable.
I can find no planning application to do this, and regardless of whether or not it was a core path, I feel that my legal right of access has been denied.
Do you know who is responsible for this outrage?
Mark Thomas
Newtonmore.
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Keep left, Humza
Scotland is a social democratic sovereign nation, trapped in a Tory far right Anglo/British state – a so called ‘Union of Equals’.
Although the SNP is a political party, it is in essence a movement for independence.
It is therefore vital that our new leader and First Minister, Humza Yousaf, keeps to a centre left political agenda, providing economic stability, fighting poverty and inequality, climate change and human rights, but above all working together, with renewed unity of purpose, to secure a vibrant and successful independent Scotland.
Grant Frazer
Newtonmore.
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Time to hit idiot fly-tippers where it hurts the most
Fly tipping and littering have been epidemic for many years and of the 60,000 reported incidents in 2022 only eight resulted in a prosecution. The SNP have been in charge since 2007 but have achieved nothing.
The Private Members Bill that Murdo Fraser MSP is presenting to the Scottish assembly is long overdue.
CCTV and dash cams should have been used to catch fly tippers and litter louts.
The courts should impose eye-watering fines and for repeat offenders, prison.
We were told 50 years ago that to stop litter we needed education, education, education.
That did not work so let’s try punishment, punishment, punishment.
Clark Cross
Springfield Road
Linlithgow.
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Time for RSPB to reassess potentially disastrous stance on moorland burning
Our moorland landscapes face disastrous consequences unless the RSPB reassesses its evidence base and rethinks its position on managed moorland burning.
In an open letter to the charity’s chair, Kevin Cox, we have called out the RSPB’s increasingly negative public attitude towards sustainable shooting and our community.
This is entrenching positions and creating barriers between groups and organisations which should be working together more than ever to tackle our climate and nature emergencies.
An example of a divisive approach is the RSPB’s campaign for members of the public to report moorland fires.
BASC is concerned that the charity’s high-profile campaign calling for the public to report all fires – and the subsequent media coverage – is misleading and designed to further an extreme and inflexible objective that is at odds with the evidence and one that would have “disastrous consequences for our important moorland landscapes.
We must arrest the widening gulf between the RSPB and many otherwise supportive landowners and land managers.
Doing so would be in the public interest. Rather than sowing division, working together would better address the nature and climate crises we collectively face.
My letter can be read in full at https://basc.org.uk/rspb-campaign-to-report-moorland-fires/
Eoghan Cameron
Chairman of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation,
Marford Mill,
Rossett.
