YOUR VIEWS: Why the state should purchase Balavil

So, Balavil Estate is up for sale. Eight or so years ago it was bought for £5.5 million.

What with all the improvement grants from the state, the Heeremas’ huge investment and the upward pressure on prices from so-called ‘green lairds’, perhaps £10 million will be the asking price.

I suppose that’s a bit of a bargain. That’s only a quarter of what has been the funicular’s funding and around 0.3 percent of what was the projected A9 dualling cost more than 15 years ago.

Could not the state buy Balavil? And by doing so attempt to exemplify a different economic and social vision for the Highlands.

Should it not, for example, be possible for the people of Scotland to benefit from peat restoration grants, forestry grants and the developing carbon market.

Should it not be possible to reconstruct communities on once thriving sites. Is it impossible to imagine repopulating the Highlands whilst enhancing biodiversity.

But what about planning constraint?

In this case would it not be possible for Balavil Estate to be specially designated to allow development outwith normal rules.

Inverness and Cromarty Freeport has special development advantages regarding planning and taxation and more. Why can’t there be a special status for a designated estate.

Something of this kind might be deemed dangerous for the environment but current rules did not prevent Balavil Estate developing a large quarry to surface many miles of new tracks.

Nor has there been any bar to flocks of alien pheasants and partridges.

Housing development could be significant and the agricultural price of land could ensure cheapness and a greater proportion of the outlay for design and quality.

Of course the current market situation would have to be protected. There are many other difficulties but surely the point is that something radical has to be tried.

Increasingly there is tension between those who believe climate change has to be addressed but are disadvantaged, not least by house prices and those, whatever their view of helping the planet, see ‘green’ policy as an opportunity to cash in.

There’s a lot of cynicism about. In her latest Strathy column Badenoch MSP Kate Forbes emphasized the need for housing and saw planning and land ownership reforms as key elements.

It surely is a challenging situation but does not the sale of Balavil present an opportunity?

Dick Webster

Kingussie.

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Groundhog day for the Cairngorm funicular

After my posts on the Parkswatch Scotland blog about the Cairngorm funicular I have been contacted by several people including civil engineers who raised concerns about the safety to the public of using the train.

On June 9, earlier this year, I emailed Stuart Black, Chief Executive Officer of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, expressing these concerns especially as Cairngorm Mountain (Scotland) Ltd had already announced at the end of May that the funicular would be closed on Tuesdays throughout June and July for ‘tidying up’ works to be completed by the contractor.

Online ticketing was not available on Wednesdays or Thursdays during that period.

The reply from HIE was that everything was okay.

Nine weeks later on August 25 the funicular was closed on the grounds of ‘public safety’ to enable ‘snagging works and inspections’ to be carried out.

Snagging works are normally minor issues carried out before major works are signed off as completed.

Several re-opening dates were announced on the CMSL website before they finally admitted that there was no specific date, only a hoped for date sometime during the ski season, and now there is no mention of the funicular at all.

From information supplied by civil engineers and the belief that all the strengthening and repair works have not done the job the questions are:

• will the funicular ever reopen?

• For how long will it stay open? and

• Will it be safe to use?

The continuing state of affairs does nothing to inspire confidence in HIE’s assessment of the situation and could ultimately affect Badenoch and Strathspey and the wider region as a whole.

It is obvious that public safety has been put at risk since the reopening in January 2023 so why would anyone ever use it again?

Graham Garfoot

Jarrow.

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Heading off in wrong direction yet again on the global emergency

Correspondent Charles Wardrop was incorrect (Strathy, December 7): he would have been frustrated if he travelled to Grantown for my talk; it was in Newtonmore.

His letter asked me five questions. He should have seen my answers to three of them in Strathy letters. To summarise:

• Is there any evidence that decarbonisation affects climate events?

Yes. Atmospheric carbon, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) has been driving climate change (Strathy, November 16 and June1; also NOAA ‘Climate Change: Annual greenhouse gas index’).

• Should the UK spend at least £3 billion for net zero by 2050?

Yes. My Strathy letter of November 30 answered that “the UK cannot afford not to” reach net zero; it referred to Channel 4’s ‘Great Climate Scandal’ and in the Strathy June 22 cited a similar conclusion in the Stern Review of 2006.

Indeed, the Office for Budget Responsibility’s ‘Climate-related measures in the Budget and Spending Review, reported that ‘unmitigated climate change would ultimately have catastrophic economic and fiscal consequences for the UK’.

• Are fears of presently ‘boiling’ earth backed by any scientific evidence?

Yes. I wrote (Strathy November 9) that “the fact of global warming is beyond doubt”, giving extensive references to leading scientific bodies. The World Meteorological Office’s ‘2023 shatters climate records’ reports that 2015 – 2123 are the warmest years on record, with 2023 most likely to be the hottest.

Gutteres, the UN Secretary-General, said the “era of global boiling has arrived”. This rhetorically emphasised the present rapidly warming temperatures.

“While temperatures are far less than 100 C, water’s boiling point, Gutteres was perhaps likening mankind to a frog which does not notice when its water is slowly brought to boil.

• Are recent adverse weather events more frequent or severe than in the historic record?

Strathy readers might well deduce that severe storms are becoming frequent. We had Storm Babel about a week after the Strathy (October 12) reported severe flooding in Badenoch and Strathspey.

In September, Storm Daniel was the deadliest recorded storm in the Mediterranean, with 4,000 deaths.

• Have the previous 27 COP climate conferences led to agreement and action?

COP in Paris agreed to hold global warming to well below 2 C and to try to limit it to 1.5 C.

Since then, nations have reported their Nationally Determined Contributions to how they will achieve the Paris agreement.

A result has been to slow increases in CO2 emissions and in global temperatures.

But, by Sunday when I sent this letter to the Strathy, COP conferences have not yet put the world on track to global warming of no more than 1.5 C.

So, global warming is a scientific fact.

It is already affecting our weather. UK costs of reaching net zero would be well spent.

Dermot Williamson

Kincraig.

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