YOUR VIEWS: Scottish Ministers need to brush up on school biology lessons
Let us hope that the senior management of Brewdog read the Strathy and your headline “Fences are ‘no answer’ in forests” (October 5).
Thirty years of study by the four organisations that comprise Cairngorms Connect has clearly demonstrated that ‘long term co-ordinated deer control, without need for fencing or planting, enables trees to recolonise upland areas at a landscape scale’.
The fundamental question must now be when are Brewdog and the other newly arrived corporate landowners in the Cairngorms, along with the traditional landowners, led by King Charles, going to learn this lesson?
The planting and fencing disaster that is BrewDog’s Kinrara Estate has recently been explained in detail by Nick Kempe in his blog parkswatchscotland – see BrewDog’s “Lost Forest” at Kinrara – as senseless, destructive and a misuse of public money.
Supporting all these badly advised landowners is the Scottish Government.
The crux of the problem is the way the SG is dishing out to the old and new lairds huge amounts of public money, to fence and plant, through their Scottish Forestry grant system.
This system, which favours tree planting in preference to natural regeneration of trees, shrubs, wood and moorland habitats, has not been fit for purpose for at least the last 50 years.
Last year I explained to then Scottish Forestry Minister Mairi McAllan that she was wasting millions of public money in the wrong sort of forestry grants, using BrewDog as the latest example of this foolish policy.
BrewDog had just been awarded in excess of £1 million to damage the hill slopes above Aviemore, by fencing, digging and planting. The public money would have been far better spent in employing more stalkers to manage the deer population and allow the hillside to regenerate.
The Minister subsequently appeared to make no effort to question why Scottish Forestry had awarded this grant, despite considerable public opposition.
Even worse, the Scottish Government then awarded a forestry grant of £2.5 million to the global finance company Abrdn Property Investment Trust to carry out a similar programme of soil disturbance and planting on their newly acquired Far Ralia estate near Newtonmore.
This land was purchased for £7.5 million by Standard Life before they were absorbed into Abrdn. The digging machines have moved from Kinrara and are now at work on Far Ralia, churning up the ground for planting.
A much better option would have been to follow the example of their Cairngorms Connect neighbours, Wildland Ltd, and simply controlled the deer so that the existing woodland and moorland habitats could expand and regenerate naturally.
Repeated representations to politicians and Scottish Forestry to stop this nonsense are given no proper consideration.
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The climate and biodiversity emergency requires a focus for the management of uncultivated landscapes in the Cairngorms to be on the cessation of muirburn and the employment of many more deer stalkers to bring about effective deer management.
The place for planting trees should be on ground already subject to intensive cultivation where the carbon loss through the planting process can be minimised.
Digging and planting semi natural vegetation is leading to carbon loss which will not be compensated for by the growing trees for many decades. By contrast, a naturally regenerating tree will be capturing carbon from day one, with no carbon loss through the planting process.
Scottish Ministers need to learn some basic biology and scrap the current forestry grant system before it is too late.
Dave Morris
Newtonmore.
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‘Futile CO2 cuts’
Dermot Williamson, Roy Turnbull and I (Strathy, 12th October) disagree about the causes, possible prevention and realistic remedies for suspected future adverse climate changes.
Slanging matches on matters of relevance to dangerous climate changes are unhelpful. Therefore, here are three questions for Strathy readers:
• need the UK continue to divert vast resources to our predictably futile, ruinous attempt to influence the world’s climate?
• Should research continue to clarify mechanisms which may lead to deterioration in the world’s climate?
• How should the now burgeoning return of fossil fuel burning for energy in many nations influence the climate policies of UN compliant nations?
That is: should present, very likely failing attempts at worldwide decarbonisation continue?
Charles Wardrop
Perth.
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Highland Council still turning a blind eye to anti-social STL guests
The 1st October has come and gone and the short term licensing scheme has finally been implemented.
A 23 per cent jump in applications in the final few days before the deadline caused significant delays to Highland Council updating the public register but we now know the full extent of the problem.
The number of applications is nearly 40 per cent above Highland Council’s estimates made back in 2021 confirming what residents have long known – that the problem is worse than anybody would admit.
The Highland area in total has lost over 7000 houses to holiday letting of which some 80 per cent are secondary lets where the owner does not live at the property.
The equivalent figures for Badenoch and Strathspey are 761 houses lost of which some 85 per cent do not have the owner living at the rental property. If you cannot visualise 761 houses, try thinking of Kingussie plus a bit.
A total of 1621 licences have so far been granted. There has not been one single case of a refusal of a licence.
So clearly there is no level of anti-social behaviour or owner neglect that would actually merit refusal.
Indeed, Highland Council seem to make it difficult to object; I had to push and prod to get them to place a link on their web pages explaining how to object.
Despite that, only eight objections have been raised this year but when you read the minutes there is a striking similarity in the problems reported – noise, anti-social behaviour, trespass, careless car parking, dog mess etc.
Yet nobody in authority takes any notice and licences are distributed like confetti.
For those wishing to make objections, the following links will help you navigate the maze that is the council’s website - read it to avoid wasting your time: https://www.highland.gov.uk/info/20021/short_term_lets/1021/short_term_lets_licensing/ 2#guidanceforobjectors
There is only a four week window to raise objections and this depends on when the application is validated by Highland Council.
In theory, the applicant should post a statutory notice explaining all that near the premises in question but there is evidence that less scrupulous operators are preventing objections by hiding the notice or not posting it at all.
Businesses that were already trading had until 1st October to make their licence application in order to remain legal.
However, there have already been 65 applications across the Highlands which fall after the 1st October deadline and spot checks reveal many of these are currently trading.
Given Highland Council’s past performance it is unlikely that these now illegal traders will face any sanctions.
Control Areas requiring planning permission for STLs are supposed to be in place by now in Edinburgh and Badenoch and Strathspey.
However, they are currently on hold pending consideration of the legal issues raised by the Association of Scotland’s Self-caterers (ASSC) in their case against Edinburgh Council.
The judgment in that case revealed that Edinburgh were trying to use the licensing scheme to do what planning controls should do.
The ASSC website reveals that they are now intent on dismantling the legislation line by line. They have already raised £300,000 to fund their legal fight.
Highland and Edinburgh councils are both nearly broke so how likely are they to take on the might of the ASSC?
Highland Council and all political parties should hang their heads in shame over this debacle.
Planning law has never permitted secondary letting and case law confirmed that view in 2020.
Yet Highland Council have for years circulated the canard that no planning permission was needed for secondary letting.
The SNP have over complicated the licensing regime, damaged B&B businesses in the process and then caved in to ASSC pressure by delaying the licensing scheme for six months.
The Greens have reduced rented housing stock by forcing long term landlords into short term letting with swingeing rent caps.
The Tories wanted a further one year delay to pacify their business chums. Labour are conspicuously silent on the subject. None of them can grasp that insufficient residential housing means dying communities and insufficient workers to sustain any economic growth. Shame on you all.
Martin Johnson
Boat of Garten.
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All leading experts in agreement on cause of global emergency
Charles Wardrop again (Strathy, October 12) denies mainstream climate science, without offering evidence.
He claims that ‘Only a tiny fraction of our atmosphere’s carbon dioxide (CO2) is man-made’.
Yet CO2 in the atmosphere grew from about 260 parts per million before the industrial revolution to 470 parts per million in 2022 (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA).
If this 80 per cent increase was not ‘man-made’, where did it come from?
He continues ‘There is no evidence that net zero decarbonisation could influence climate’.
But the NOAA explains that because of ‘the heating influence caused by the major human-produced greenhouse gases … today’s atmosphere absorbs more than 3 extra watts of energy per square meter of Earth’s surface’ more than in 1750. With greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change, decarbonising emissions will also change the climate’.
He confuses difficulty in predicting chaotic temperatures, perhaps relatively locally over short periods, with relentless multi-year warming of global climate.
And he claims that ‘decarbonisation policies foisted on us are based on unproven hypotheses’.
But 98.7 per cent of expert climate scientists, and all of the most expert among them, agree that the world is warming mostly because of human activity such as emitting carbon into the atmosphere (Myers et al., 2021).
For them, this theory of global warming is not falsified by contrary evidence, and so passes the criterion of scientific proof in Popper’s Logic of Scientific Discovery.
These claims by Charles Wardrop’s do not stand up to counter evidence. Unless he supports them with evidence, readers may think that he is deliberately trying to mislead them with misinformation.
Dermot Williamson
Kincraig.
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Re-open the doors of Grantown’s hospital
Those of us who have read the Brahan Seer’s book – it was in every house when we were young, giving uncanny predictions – wonder if he would have predicted that Ian Charles Cottage Hospital would open up again.
We were all brainwashed into believing that the building was not fit for purpose.
This was the lever used by NHS Highland in their crusade to build a new hospital in Aviemore.
This was a golden opportunity for those backing the venture to the hilt, so they deserted the sinking ship, not caring what would become of this precious medical building, gifted to the good people of Grantown.
The cottage hospital is now fit for purpose.
It is the temporary health centre, as refurbishment takes place in the building next door and it has been given a clean bill of health.
This gives many hope that the building can be turned into a permanent care facility, which is so essential in this rural community.
The loss of care facilities in Grantown has left a void which so badly needs filling.
NHS Highland and Highland Council need to sit down together and bring the hospital back to life, once again as the heart of the community.
We are all dependent on care facilities. Recently, we had to rely on the ambulance service to provide help for my wife, assistance which was outstanding.
Their personal attention means a lot of the patient – Eric Pirie, who was part of the ambulance crew, should be there to play some toe-tapping Scottish tunes on his violin, as it might rejuvenate the parts of the body which tablets don’t reach and save a journey to A&E at Raigmore Hospital!
Thankfully, my wife has made a full recovery, so our sincere thanks to all those who provided medical attention.
If, like me, you want Ian Charles Hospital to open its doors again, you should raise your voice and make your feelings known.
Leonard Grassick
Grantown.
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Cleaning chores for school pupils would keep them in class
Please can Highland Council’s education authority explain why pupils can’t go to a school because the cleaners are on strike (Strathy online, School strikes set to hit Badenoch and Strathspey pupils after Cosla pay offer rejected).
In Japan, pupils clean their own classrooms.
Brian Swift
Laggan.
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Natural regeneration of native pinewoods is best way forward
I WAS delighted to read the article (Strathy, October 5) based on the report from Cairngorms Connect declaring that there is no need for expensive fencing and planting to reafforest upland areas – it could be achieved by natural regeneration where there are seed trees.
This is exactly what I and experts including Prof. Chris Smout, Prof Bob Bunce, the late Dr Adam Watson and Dick Balharry, and Dave Morris have been trying in vain to tell the Forestry Commission (now confusingly called Scottish Forestry), Scottish Natural Heritage (now NatureScot), and the Cairngorms National Park Authority, for the last 20 years.
This was the policy of these authorities until this century, when, without explanation or consultation, they reversed previously stated policy to expand ancient woodland by natural means, and allowed the planting of trees in and around designated areas.
This was despite knowing planting causes degradation and breaks the 9,000 year chain of natural evolution.
In 1959 Prof Steven and Dr Carlisle of Aberdeen University had published the findings of their comprehensive research into the remnant Caledonian Pinewoods (CPW) ‘The Native Pinewoods of Scotland’. It revealed the location and shocking condition of the few remaining descendants, due to felling, planting, and overgrazing.
This stimulated action by many naturalists, foresters and authorities – notably The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology – and led to major conferences at Coylumbridge (1975) and Culloden (1994) where delegates agreed to take action to protect and expand the remnant CPWs by natural means.
Many official publications on appropriate management and practice guides stressed natural regeneration as the most suitable method of regeneration – which also avoids harmful and expensive ground disturbance from ploughing or mounding.
But this century these protective policies have been ignored even by the authorities who made them – planting and ground disturbance have been allowed, with the RSPB permitted to plant thousands of trees in the Abernethy CPW (even core parts, regeneration and buffer zones) and the hitherto development free heavily designated Cairngorms above Loch Avon.
Perhaps now ancient woods and the Cairngorms will be properly protected from harmful anthropogenic actions.
There are plenty of upland areas well away from any ancient woods or mature native trees which can be planted to increase Scotland’s area of forests.
But in the designated CPWs like Abernethy and the Cairngorms planting must be banned.
Realistic and adequate restocking and expansion areas, must be properly designated and protected by owners as custodians for present and future generations to enjoy..
Basil Dunlop
Grantown.
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Banning holiday lets would be damaging to Badenoch and Strathspey's economy
All operators of holiday homes in the strath have had to apply for both planning and licensing not knowing the basis upon which planning will decide their application and those of us that applied nine months ago have had their applications held in limbo awaiting legal advice.
Refusal of planning is automatic refusal of licence. Holiday homes, as a class, make a substantial contribution to the local economy – we have all heard of party house properties but disruptive behaviour can be handled through the licensing system which is separate from planning grant.
We can’t assume all holiday homes result in disruptive behaviour – the vast majority cater for families and extended families and where do such groups go for holidays?
Hotels are not suitable for group holiday let.
I am just back from a week in Portugal for the whole family renting a holiday home.
We spent money in restaurants, bars, on activities, bike hire and local business selling local produce for cooking on the barbecue. The area was once poor, it is thriving now with the growth of the holiday market.
How many of us go on holiday to similar places? Is it not a bit rich to completely prevent the holiday house rental in the strath?
We have a history of holiday let that extends well back before the likes of holiday platforms such as Air bnb. Badenoch and Strathspey is not Edinburgh – the holiday let home is far more important to our economy
Should we control properties being removed from residential which are suitable for affordable housing due to location and price or suitable for worker accommodation? The answer is surely yes. But should we be removing holiday let homes not suitable for such a purpose? The answer is surely no.
I rather fear that a policy of ‘presumption against change of use from residential to holiday let’ – whether or not the properties are suitable for that purpose or not – would be a huge act of self harm.
I rather suspect the fervour against holiday lets that has been unreasonably whipped up will result in such a policy causing irreparable damage to holiday operators of this needed form of holiday accommodation, local businesses and local employment
Let’s trust we have sensible use of planning rather than knee jerk reaction and not the use of planning to bring in, in effect, a ban on holiday let homes.
Let’s have sensible, controlled holiday let policy not an unreasonable damaging attack.
Gordon Thomson
Kingussie.
