When I went up upper Glen Falloch on 8th August to look at the hydro intake (see here), I spotted a new forestry road on the far side of the river. This appears to be in the exact same location as a road which was notified to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority under the Prior Notification system on 29th July 2020 (see here), i.e just a week earlier.
There have been no other Prior Notifications or Planning applications for this part of forest south of Inverardran in the last three years so I believe it is safe to assume it is the same section of road as that in the Prior Notification. There is nothing in planning report dated 25th August to suggest that this was a retrospective prior notification and the papers refer to the works taking place in the future. The application by Forestry and Land Scotland for Prior Approval was, therefore, nothing of the sort.
Whether the LLTNPA was aware of this I am not sure but, accepting the staff concerned did act in good faith, they have been deceived by Forestry and Land Scotland. Whatever the explanation, this is a serious matter and brings the whole Prior Notification system for forest roads into further disrepute.
The LLTNPA’s report on this proposal, dated 25th August, refers to this new road as a quad bike track:
“The purpose of the tracks is to provide quad access for essential works such as planting and general maintenance of a young tree crop through its establishment phase and for deer management purposes.”
Some quad bike track! But the report and plans also refer to the track being for “forwarders”, much bigger vehicles requiring much bigger roads. So which is it?
The LLTNPA’s woodland adviser is quoted in the report as saying “landscape impact will be minimal and that the specification is acceptable”. This might be true if a quad bike track had been built, but this is an industrial forestry road, which has the hallmarks of being built to the UK Forestry Standards (roads up to 7 metres wide). Unfortunately, the specification has not been published on the planning portal (I have asked for it) so one cannot tell at present what the LLTNPA was told by FLS.
The Report, however, also states:
“Tracks will be ‘as dug’ construction i.e. materials to construct the tracks will be sourced on or immediately adjacent to the track line and no imported or quarried material will be used in the construction.”
That is clearly not true, the base of the road appears to have been constructed by quarried material and to have come from a quarry in the forest above (sorry no photo). This suggests that LLTNPA staff have indeed been deceived. If, instead of doing desktop exercises to decide planning applications, they were allowed by their bosses to make site visits, these errors might have been avoided and the integrity of the planning system protected. As it is, this is yet another example of how the endless Prior Notifications of new forestry roads are helping to destroy the landscape qualities of the LLTNPA was set up to protect.
The way this Prior Notification has been handled raises questions about fairness and equity in the planning system. I have campaigned for five years now for hydro roads to meet the LLTNPA’s own standards for renewable developments. There is still lots wrong with the Glen Falloch hydro roads – the road here for example is far too wide and there is no central grass strip which would reduce the landscape impact and the water run-off – but Glen Falloch Estate has gradually been restoring the worst damage. How can they be expected to do that, however, if the LLTNPA allows Forestry and Land Scotland to get away with such disgraceful roads on the other side of the same glen?
Unfortunately, the LLTNPA undermines its own moral authority and the ability of its staff to take effective enforcement action by treating people and organisations differently, depending on who they are and whether any member of the public makes a fuss or not.
You need to be of a certain age to fully appreciate what has been surrendered to so called “progress” across the highlands since the forestry planting boom years, imposed by subsidy on the nations upland areas during the 1950’s. These new forests were mostly planted with few tracks, by stealth and human ingenuity, but very little thought was given to how what grew to maturity was to be harvested. Wire hillsides tows as seen elsewhere in the world for bringing felled timber from trackless places have gone in response to H&S risk assessment considerations mainly . Consigned now to the history books. Everywhere it has to be big engines , hydraulics amid a chaos of mud and broken timber. A battle ground of industrial will left exposed , as those formerly pristine hillsides, clothed so innocently in small trees so long ago are returned to full view.
As these places are replanted in this decade let us make sure more sense is brought to bear. We should aim to endow future generations with diversity, leaving space for native species to thrive again. Consumers should all ask why it is necessary for profit margins to dictate that everywhere be accessible to vast machines on inadequate rubber tyres?