Scottish Forest routes to disappear?

Old Pedaller

Today's Stranraer and Wigtownshire Free Press has a front page article about the SNP's proposal to lease the Galloway Forest Park (as part of a plan to lease 25% of Scotland's forests to raise funds) with more on this is to be on You and Yours today on Radio 4.

There is only one reason any private company would lease forests and that is to make money from them which, in our context, means charging for their use. Access is also likely to be restricted due to an unwillingness to be exposed to health and safety issues (eg where logging works are taking place). Who will pay them to build and maintain trails?

Write to your MSP now.

cee

good luck restricting access to forest routes in scotland. I don't think they can charge you to use the land....maybe to park a car in a maintained carpark, but using the forest....i think that the freedom of access legislation stops them from doing so. could be wrong though.

avoidingmyphd

i think the OP meant that the rights you get under freedom of access legislation might be under threat.

Old Pedaller

The update from You and Yours is that there is potential for a big blow to the local economy due to job losses which is bad news for everyone.

As far as we are concerned the proposal seems to be to lease off for 75 years the strategy for management of and control of the forests. This would mean that, once under way, neither the Government nor the Forestry Commission would have any say in what went on.

Access laws do not guarantee access to all land and do not compel anyone to build or maintain trails for cyclists. A company harvesting a forest has interest only in its own bottom line and not that of Mrs Miggins' B&B down the road because cyclists are not coming to the area.

It's a complex issue but one on which we should perhaps communicate our opinions to our elected representatives sooner rather than too late?

cee

The freedom of access laws (particularly in scotland, where they are based on old common law, rather than the nightmare you lot south of the border have with land access) would be pretty difficult to legislate around. Again, as far as I am aware, and without researching the subject particularly, only areas of ecological significance, or are MOD land are off limits entirely (as long as we don't cause a nuisance in the other non-exempt areas).

sure, a company wouldn't be compelled to build/maintain trails, but that doesn't necessarily mean that existing trails would be demolished, or that natural trails would become off limits.

Good to flag it up..obviously details are sparse at the moment so it is easy to jump to conclusions....hopefully more detail will be added here as it arises. cheers OP

avoidingmyphd

bad news cee, the freedom of access laws would be very easy to legislate around

cee

i don't really know the ins and outs of all the law, but i suspect passing legislation doesn't just happen in the course of a weekend. dont actually know how easy it is to do, or what other things stand in the way etc... its a good job its an SNP proposal...they couldn't organise an evenings drinking in a brewery.

TheKrikkitWars

avoidingmyphd wrote:

bad news cee, the freedom of access laws would be very easy to legislate around

Not really.

I'm deeply embroiled in the recreational access debate through kayaking, and without making a legislative u-turn and removing laws that have in their rawest form been around for over 1000 years of scots history, any one (Govt., timber company or otherwise) would be totally at the mercy of the local Sheriff's court passing judgment to exclude them from open access.

In any case, having strong links with the timber industry, I really can't see them excluding anyone from the forest, possibly areas where logging and extraction is actually in progress but the Forestry Commission do that too, and would be negligent not to.

cee

TheKrikkitWars wrote:

I'm deeply embroiled in the recreational access debate through kayaking, and without making a legislative u-turn and removing laws that have in their rawest form been around for over 1000 years of scots history, any one (Govt., timber company or otherwise) would be totally at the mercy of the local Sheriff's court passing judgment to exclude them from open access.

I have not decided whether that sounds good or bad!