After my post yesterday questioning the legality and justification of the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s ‘Exclusion Zone’ on Tuesday (see here), a reader sent me a photo of this sign at Inverdruie.  I do not know who is responsible for the wording but there is no mention of any Exclusion Zone.  That and the “welcome” are both welcome.

There is no problem either with the sign asking people to respect path closures, so long as those path closures are agreed under the frameworks established and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code and the reasons for them explained to the public.

Commenting on my post, a reader stated that although they generally agreed with my arguments about access rights following the Abernethy/Glen More wildfire, they believed many staff in the CNPA were “frazzled” following what had happened and I should give them a break.  My response to that is that if the CNPA’s staff are feeling frazzled, the safest and least stressful course of action is not to try and invent totally new ways of managing access (by inventing exclusion zones)  but to utilise the well established procedures that have been developed under SOAC to manage risks to the public, including those posed by forestry operations that may be required following the wildfire.Those include providing advice on alternative routes when paths need to be closed.

If the CNPA does not have the staff resources to follow those well established processes at the present time they should ask for help from Highland Council’s Access Team.  I would hope that with the support of the local councillors on their board, Highland Council would be happy to oblige.