Category: Other parts Scotland

March 27, 2025 Nick Kempe 5 comments

In November David Craig explained how advances in smart phone technology meant that any masts erected under the UK Government’s Shared Rural Network programme  to eliminate Total Not Spots would soon become obsolete (see here).  On 25th March Ofcom issued a set of proposals for consultation which would remove the regulatory block to that happening…

March 8, 2025 Nick Kempe 6 comments

The Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT)’s announcement earlier this week that they had purchased the Inverbroom Estate (see here) should be another nail in the coffin for so-called green finance. Tucked away in their news release is a very significant statement: “Following the purchase, the Trust has announced several ambitions for the site, from the regeneration…

March 5, 2025 Nick Kempe 4 comments

Following my post yesterday on King Charles’ muirburn at Delnadamph (see here), I am very grateful to Jamie Mann, an investigative journalist at the Ferret, for alerting me to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) database (see here).  FIRMS records satellite observations of fires, however caused,  across the world.  Satellite technology now has…

February 1, 2025 Nick Kempe 4 comments

At the end of August I  wrote about the proposal to install a telecommunications in Glen Undalain, the glen which runs south from the campsite at Shiel Bridge towards the Saddle and is part of the Kintail National Scenic Area (NSA). While few people know about NSAs, the designation intended to protect Scotland’s most beautiful…

October 26, 2024 Nick Kempe 4 comments

David’s Jarman’s post (see here) on the destructive impacts of the proposed Lochan na h-Earba pumped storage hydro (PSH) scheme and the fate awaiting Scotland’s landscape, natural environment and cultural heritage appears to have struck a cord.  Many people who strongly support the need to reduce carbon emissions and recognise that we need to store…

October 25, 2024 Dave Morris 2 comments

Importance of the pinewoods. Forestry policy, private and public landowners and deer management will be under scrutiny next week at the native pinewoods conference in Fort William (28/29 Oct see here). This post examines what needs to happen to save our ancient Caledonian pinewoods and who might lead the way. The future of our Caledonian…

June 11, 2024 David Jarman 8 comments

No corrie will be safe, no classic Munro round will remain sacrosanct, if they approve “Earba”.  This is the developers’ secretive codename for a mega-pumped storage hydro scheme (PSH) which is with the equally secretive Energy Consents Unit to fast-track under some barely-accountable Energy Minister’s pen in amongst a sheaf of routine death warrants for…

May 30, 2024 David Craig 6 comments

Answering MPs, who asked whether Total Not Spot (TNS) masts in uninhabited Wild Land are value for money, the CEO of Building Digital UK recently told the UK Public Account Committee: “…once you know where those sites are, each of the clusters as they go through planning will have to have a business plan …to…

April 29, 2024 Nick Kempe 2 comments

This post takes another look (see here) and (here) at the planning application to build an enormous pump storage hydro scheme between Loch Leambhain, facing Ben Alder, and Lochan na H-Earba.   The Scottish Government’s unaccountable Energy Consents Unit Generally it is harder to find documents relating to planning application on the Energy Consents Unit (ECU)…