Work on a destructive new track on a Highland estate has been halted with immediate effect after The Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) wrote to Highland Council calling on them to have the work stopped.

The Attadale estate was creating a huge scar across a Wester Ross hillside by using a bulldozer to change a narrow footpath into a vehicular road. Highland Council planners felt they were powerless to interfere with the creation of this scar on the landscape, because upgrading an existing track is considered to be "permitted development". The MCofS wrote to Highland Council Planning Department expressing disagreement with this interpretation, and requesting they serve a Stop Order and seek reinstatement of the work already carried out. It appears that rather than have a notice served, the estate have agreed to stop the work voluntarily while the planning position is reviewed.

The track is on the west side of Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich, a Munro known affectionately to hillwalkers as "Cheesecake". It is in a remote 'wild land' area, which government planning guidelines already aim to protect from vehicular intrusion.

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MCofS Access and Conservation Officer, Mike Dales, said: "This should not be classed as permitted development, because this is introducing a significant new road into a remote and scenic area. The new road is wider, built to a lower standard of construction and is for a different purpose. In planning terms this clearly represents a change of use. We therefore call on Scottish Natural Heritage and Highland Council to take out an injunction and stop this work with immediate effect."

Mike Newbury, secretary of the MCofS Access and Conservation committee, went on to say: "If such destruction is permitted development then the rules need to be urgently reviewed, and the Scottish Executive should recognise this and act quickly before anymore of our wild land areas are desecrated in this way."

Mike Dales has walked in the area and took the digital photographs on this page on the evening of July 11th. At that time the new road ran to about 500 metres. According to Simon Fraser at Highland Council (Portree) it is intended to go 3 kilometres.

The line of the track can be found on Ordnance Survey Landranger sheet 25. The track starts just east of Bendronaig Lodge at 018392, and is expected to follow the line of a path marked on the map to somewhere in the vicinity of where the path crosses a burn at 028417. The previous bulldozed road that was created last year runs from Bendronaig Lodge to Pait Lodge on the south shore of Loch Monar. The digger in these pictures is parked at 017396.

more on this from ScotlandOnline/outdoors
news release - 10 July '02