Newsletter no.37 November 1998
ACCESS & CONSERVATIONACCESS LEGISLATION UPDATENick Kempe Access legislation will be much in the news in the autumn and any mountaineer can help our cause by contacting their local candidates for the Scottish Parliament or by writing to papers at that time. As previously reported the Access Forum, on which I represent MCofS, has been considering the whole issue of access legislation. Our timetable for doing this has been somewhat shortened due to the government wanting to make an announcement before the end of the year. As a result of this the Forum's report will be published mid-late October before the Board of Scottish Natural Heritage decide what advice they will offer government in early November. Discussion and negotiations within the Access Forum have been long and difficult. Because of the short timescale it will not be possible to get the Report endorsed by the organisations represented on the Forum (which for a democratic organisation like MCofS would take months) and the Report will be published as the advice of the individuals who sit on the Forum. While I am not at liberty to report details now (I will do so in the next newsletter) and there are still some crucial points which have not been agreed I can re-assure readers that there will be nothing in the Report that weakens our traditional freedom of access, exercised responsibly. Indeed the Report will make recommendations about how this can be put on a more secure basis than at present. The MCofS Executive and Access & Conservation Committee have been kept informed and I am confident that there will be nothing in the Report that will contradict current MCofS policy. The key issue therefore is likely to be whether SNH and government are prepared to accept the key recommendations of the Report. Whatever the decision a little lobbying will do no harm, so when the time comes consider returning from the hill half an hour early one day and writing that letter .... I am free to report that there were 192 responses to the Access Forum's consultation exercise and the overwhelming majority of these argued that the law needed to be made clearer and simpler. Members may have seen the recent correspondence in Scotland on Sunday about access to Glen Dessary. Geraldine Murray from the newspaper wrote an article about Sir Patrick Grant's (the new owner) proposed access leaflet and the concern that it was causing access groups such as the MCofS. Sir Patrick produced a draft Access Leaflet containing draconian restrictions on access to the estate, and asked us for our comment. We pointed out that these restrictions were excessive and against the Access Concordat. We appreciate that he faces problems with visitors who abuse bothies and whose dogs chase deer, but we have emphasised that the vast majority of walking visitors will be well behaved and shouldn't be punished because of the actions of others. We have offered to meet with Sir Patrick to discuss the issues on the estate and to help find solutions to his problems, but as yet he has refused to meet with us. As far as we are aware the leaflets were produced, but they haven't been distributed. If a leaflet is displayed during this year's stalking season it is likely to be the version, or something very similar, to the one we have commented upon. We have pointed out that the tone of the leaflet is inappropriate and that we would advise our members to ignore it. We feel that we should warn our members about the possibility of picking up one of these leaflets, and maybe experiencing difficulties on the ground. If anyone picks up a leaflet, or has any difficulties taking access on the estate, could you write to us with as many details as possible. We hope that there won't be any problems, but the content of the draft leaflet has given cause for concern.
At a time when the Hillphones scheme is expanding and the Access Forum is finding so much common ground, it is sad, but necessary to report that this year's stalking season is throwing up more access problems than the last couple of years. In recent weeks we have heard that the Benmore estate on Mull has installed a sign asking walkers for a £2 donation to climb Ben More. The money is said to be for the Game Conservancy Trust, although the sign asking for the donation doesn't make this clear. The estate, which belongs to Lord Massereene, is currently on the market. A good piece of marketing, because most newspapers have now printed articles that advertise this sale.
In Glen Lyon the North Chesthill estate has replaced the gate leading onto the start of the track to the Carn Mairg group with a 12 foot high gate, which has been locked on a number of midweek days in recent weeks. A sign on the gate has stated that the closure has been necessary to allow conservation work to take place. We are following this case up and would welcome any information from hillwalkers visiting Glen Lyon. Could you let us know the date when you were there and whether or not the gate was locked. These recent problems are further proof, as if more were needed, that a change in access legislation in Scotland is way overdue. The threat of being charged for access or losing access at the day-to-day whim of a landowner will be constantly with us until we achieve our objective of a change in the law of access via the Scottish Parliament. The report of last year's Access Symposium on Access Legislation Reform is now available. The price is £2 to members and £3 to non-members. The topic of last year's Symposium was Access Legislation Reform. The report is a collection of papers that were given at the Symposium. Speakers included Rennie McOwan, Alan Blackshaw, Arthur Howcroft, Nick Kempe, Donald Bennett and Dave Morris.
The report on the Scottish Countryside Access Network (SCAN) conference on Access Legislation Reform will also be available by the time this Newsletter is published, priced £3 from Petula Thomas, 11 Marshall Place, Luncarty, Perth PH1 3UU. Speakers at the conference included past MCofS Presidents Nick Kempe and Bob Reid.
An application for a Woodland Grant Scheme (WGS) has been made by the crofting communities of Achiltibuie and Strathcanaird for the area to the north east of Sgurr an Fhidhleir in Coigach. In its current form this scheme would mean the erection of deer fencing around the edge of the woodland area, including up to the lower side of Lochan Tuath, which is at the foot of Sgurr an Fhidhleir. Whilst being generally supportive of native woodland restoration, the MCofS has objected to this proposal because of its reliance on fencing to control deer numbers within the proposed woodland area. Along with other people like Dick Balharry, we believe that this woodland scheme could be carried out without recourse to fencing. We would rather see the crofters being paid to control deer numbers than have massive amounts of public money being spent on fencing that will seriously detract from the quality of the landscape.
As mentioned in the last two Newsletters, the new Allt a' Mhuillin car park on Ben Nevis is now open. In order to raise the profile of the new facility, we are jointly hosting with Highland Council a press launch on October 9th. We have arranged with Berghaus for Alan Hinkes to be present at the launch, and we hope from this to receive good publicity for the new facility. Most importantly though, we want to send the message far and wide so that winter mountaineers from all over the UK, and beyond, will hopefully hear that the new car park is open. We are pleased with the standard of the construction work on the car park and track, and believe that the car park is an excellent facility that does justice to the quality recreational experience that people seek in the area. As always we welcome your views and comments, so please let us know if you encounter problems at the car park or have any suggestions for improving it.
The Wild Camping leaflet that we produced a year ago has proved very popular and we have just arranged for a reprint of another 20,000 copies. Lorraine Nicholson has received numerous requests for batches of leaflets from accommodation providers, countryside ranger services and operators of visitor centres. The new leaflets will be with us by the end of September. Please contact the office if you wish to obtain a copy.
At the time of writing this on September 17th there was still no news about the result of the Judicial Review into the Cairn Gorm Funicular, which was brought about by the RSPB and WWF. As soon as there is any news we will announce it in the Newsletter. Pressure on politicians can be applied at anytime, so there is no need to wait for the result of the review. Make your MP aware of your views on the funicular if you get half an opportunity. Letters can be sent to the Secretary of State at any time, not just when a consultation is ongoing.
Part 1 of the inquiry reporter's account of the proposed Shieldaig hydro scheme has been released. The part one report is a statement of facts from the inquiry, whereas the 2nd part will give the reporter's recommendation to the Secretary of State as to whether he thinks it should be given the go-ahead or not. This report could be released later this year or sometime in 1999. That won't be the end of the matter however, because Donald Dewar can choose to accept or reject the reporter's view. The saga continues. The MCofS remains determined to protect this precious area of wild land and we will continue to keep our members informed of this planning case.
The MCofS's application to convert this fund into a charitable trust is still with the Inland Revenue. As soon as we get a positive response from the Inland Revenue we should obtain a charity number within 2 to 3 weeks. As soon as we have news on the outcome of this application we will bring it to you. No doubt the answer will arrive the day after we go to press! Once we do have confirmation of a successful application we plan to organise a launch event for the new charity. We hope this event will be sometime in the coming winter season. Details will be sent out as soon as possible, so watch out for news of a major event.
We asked in the last Newsletter for members to write to us with their top 5 or 10 list of car parking nightmares in Scotland. The nightmare might be the lack of a car park, the unfair closure of a car park, the mud and water in a car park, the danger to people crossing the road, the danger caused by cars pulling in or out, or any other reason you can think of. We have had a few replies, but would welcome some more before we approach anyone about these issues. Discuss this with your club, or walking and climbing companions, then send us your nominations. We have helped to resolve the parking problems for access to the Allt a' Mhuilinn side of Ben Nevis, so if we have a comprehensive list of other problem areas we will make an attempt to resolve as many as we can manage to influence.
At the MCofS's request, Highland Council's Lochaber Division has agreed to work with us to set up a Nevis Working Group. The aim of this group will be to bring all interested parties together to address the problems and issues in Glen Nevis and on Ben Nevis and at Nevis Range. The first meeting of the group will take place on the evening of Tuesday October 20th at the Council Chambers in Fort William. Plans for the meeting are being put together at the moment, so anyone wishing to find out more about the meeting should contact the MCofS office.
This annual event took place at the Vane Farm Nature Reserve on the weekend of September 5th and 6th. The theme for this year's fair was "Mountains" so the MCofS played a key part in organising the event along with the regular partner bodies. The event was opened by Chris Brasher who made an excellent speech in which he displayed his enthusiasm and affection for the Scottish mountains. The wittiest line of this speech was when he encouraged visitors to the fair to walk around and visit the many interesting stands. He then said "There seems to be one important stand missing. That is the coconut shy at which they should have the heads of all the people behind this ridiculous funicular idea on Cairn Gorm, where you could throw things at them." MCofS vice-president, Helen Geddes, gave a talk in the lecture tent on "Access and Conservation - Scottish Style", and the MCofS stand was kept busy throughout the weekend and brought in a number of sales, enquiries, and hopefully new members. The fair had a high profile visitor on the Sunday in the form of Donald Dewar. The Secretary of State was officially there to launch the Scottish Office's new initiative against the persecution of birds of prey in Scotland. (We hope to bring more news on that project in the next MCofS Newsletter.) This was the first time that a Government Minister had visited the fair and Donald Dewar did spend a decent amount of time looking round the site and meeting people. The most popular attraction at the fair was the mobile climbing wall, supplied and manned by the Glasgow Climbing Centre. As every other stand was being dismantled and loaded away on the Sunday afternoon, there was still a queue of youngsters waiting to have there first experience of climbing.
|
|
This page is part of the old website of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland. To visit the new website, click on www.mcofs.org.uk |
[ Home ] [ News ]
[ Safety and Training ] [ Access and Conservation ] [ Sports Development ] [ Council Matters ]
[ Search ] [ Info Service ] [ Membership ] [ Publications ] [ Links ]