Beryl Leatherland

Overview
The most notable event of the year for the A&C committee was the departure last November of Mike Dales, our Access Officer, for the Scottish Canoe Association. Mike is enjoying his new job and continues to be involved in access matters, albeit in an environment with rather different challenges to address. We miss having a full time officer, especially one with Mike’s knowledge and experience.

The MCofS is not in a position to advertise for a replacement for Mike at the moment. We have to raise funds to cover the costs of a salary, our contribution to admin and the running of the office and some of the volunteers’ expenses. To cover this around £k40/year is needed. We have secured a grant from the Scottish Mountaineering Trust of £k6/year for two years. The SMT has long supported our work and we really appreciate their generosity. The BMC also contributed £k10 to help represent English and Welsh mountaineers’ interests during the year and we are very grateful for that help. Without such support from our partners in other organisations we would not be able to deliver our work programme. A grant application to Scottish Natural Heritage is being prepared at the time of writing. We do, however, anticipate a significant shortfall and would remind members that to date none of their subscription has been directed towards A&C work; we have relied entirely on sourcing funds externally.

In the absence of a paid officer, the A&C volunteers have been beavering away and sharing the workload, alongside our ‘day jobs’. We are supported by our temporary part-time assistant in the office, Sylvia Laing, who has gallantly and patiently coped both with our own eccentricities and the occasional frustrations of the office IT system. Much of our attention has been focused on responding to a deluge of consultations on all manner of topics issued by the SE, SNH, NTS, FC and others. It is really vital that we scrutinise these documents and thoroughly consider their implications for our access to the hill resource and their impacts on the environment before responding with our views. If the timescale for responding has been sufficient, members have been notified of these on the website, where there is also a list of all the consultations responded to. The responses submitted are also usually put on the website.

Access
The 9th February saw the first anniversary of the implementation of the statutory rights of access through the provisions in Part 1 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act. Over the year, the A&C has received via e-mail a steady flow of queries and concerns from members (and non-members) about access matters in various locations. It is envisaged that it will be at least a couple of years until the Land Reform Act and the SOAC are effectively implemented and a culture of responsible access is established among users and land managers. We liaise with other organisations and NGOs in sharing experiences - via the various groups and working parties on which we have representation - in working towards establishing what is probably the best access legislation in the world. In addition, work has started on monitoring the composition and work of Local Access Forums.

The Hillphones scheme can be very useful where it is needed and when an estate is committed to keeping its information up to date, accurate and helpful. It should be noted that estates managed by the NTS, John Muir trust, SNH, RSPB and the Forestry Commission have no access restrictions to climbers and hillwalkers and no hillphones are in place yet, despite this, they manage high deer culls. We would welcome more estates aspiring to such a responsible approach and following their good practice.

Conservation
There are increasing threats to and pressures on our landscapes, particularly our wild land and more remote places. Scotland has huge renewable energy resources and there are vast numbers of schemes aimed at tapping into this potential. MCofS policy strongly supports renewable energy strategies in principle, but many of these developments are not acceptable due to their environmental encroachment and the picture is clouded by applications to develop facilities that can only be considered to be speculative. We are not helped either by the planning legislation or by the government’s lack of a coherent realistic energy strategy. Whenever we regard a scheme to be inappropriate then we lodge our reasoned argument, but this counts as just one objection. If members also presented their views individually we would have a larger and more effective voice as every submission, however brief, contributes to the overall count of objectors. In future, we will endeavour to keep members even better informed about these matters via the website and will encourage more involvement.

British Upland Footpath Trust - Mike Newbury
The British Upland Footpath Trust (BUFT) is a charity co-founded by MCofS, along with the Ramblers’ Association and the Outdoor Industries Association. Nick Halls, MCofS Hon. Secretary, is a Trustee.

In August 2005, BUFT published a Monitoring Survey Report on hill paths previously inspected in 1996-97. For this survey, members of the MCofS Access and Conservation Committee inspected 7 paths in Scotland and 5 in the Lake District. The full Report is now available on CD with a paper summary; price £6 (inc. p&p) from BUFT, c/o BMC, 177-179 Burton Road, Manchester, M20 2BB.

In September 2005 BUFT held a conference at Bangor University with some 95 delegates present including representatives of user groups, National Parks and also path managers, contractors and consultants. Publication of a conference report is imminent at the time of writing. Important initiatives were put in hand, including a name change to the Upland Path Trust, and it is hoped to bring in representation from the Irish who are already enthusiastic contributors.

Representation at other Organisations and Committees

Committee members and others have represented the A&C committee on the groups and committees during the year: Access and Conservation Trust - John Mackenzie
Angus Glens Management Group - Dougal Roy
British Upland Footpath Group - Nick Halls, Mike Newbury
Deer Commission for Scotland Round Table - Keith Miller
Hillphones Committee - Dougal Roy
Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park - John Donohoe
Montane Scrub Advisory Group - Keith Miller
National Access Forum - John Mackenzie
National Trust for Scotland - Beryl Leatherland
Nevis Partnership - Kevin Howett
Scottish Environment LINK:
- Landscape Task Force - Beryl Leatherland
- MoD Scottish Liaison Committee - Beryl Leatherland
SNH/NGO Round Table - Beryl Leatherland
Traprain Law Advisory Group - Alan Smith
Upland Path Advisory Group - Mike Newbury

I must publicly thank the members of the A&C committee and also Sylvia Laing for their unstinting work over the past few months in ensuring that tasks are addressed and completed. It is reassuring to be able to rely on such a dedicated, positive and knowledgeable team, and I hope they forgive me for constantly nagging them to produce their evidence and report forms for our quarterly SNH Review submissions!

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