I was pleased to have this letter, full text below, published in the Herald on Tuesday. I hope it speaks for itself: “Your front page report on Saturday (Rural communities ‘at risk’ in phone network switch 13th April see here) shows the UK Government’s approach to telecommunications provision in rural areas, a Westminster responsibility, is…
Tag: landscape
I am very grateful to all the people who have promoted my post on Sunday (see here) about Scottish Forestry and the tree planting disaster at Kinrara and my apologies that the parkswatch website then crashed. This does not appear to have been due to a cyber attack by defenders of the forestry grants system or…
This post take a look at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s handling of three recent planning applications and the anomalies therein following Nick Kempe’s post earlier in the week about Inchconnachan (see here). More on Inchconnachan island I attended the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) Planning & Access…
On 16th March 2024 Prior Notification of the intention to erect a 25m high telcommunications mast east of Corrour Lodge was published on the Highland Council Planning Portal (24_00979 TPNO see here). The proposal does not require full planning permission, even though it is close to the heart of the third most extensive Wild Land…
Following many months of speculation, the long-trailed Earba pumped storage hydro scheme proposed by Gilkes Energy for Ardverikie Estate is now the subject of a formal planning application on the Scottish Government’s Energy Consent Unit (ECU) website. Since it was first proposed, the installed capacity of the Earba scheme has doubled from 900 MW to…
[Ed note. While I wrote about the proposed mast on Creag Dubh in a previous post (see here), this objection to the Planning Application from Dave Morris sets out a reasoned and detailed case about what is wrong with the Shared Rural Network programme and the approach they are taking to fixing the “partial…
Following the post from Lynne Somerville of the Balloch and Haldane Community Council about the proposed Vale of Leven windfarm in December (see here), I am very pleased to be able to report that Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) staff recommended (see here) to their Planning Committee on Monday that they should…
[Ed’s note. This post complements the points David made in the excellent article by Vicky Allan in the Sunday Herald at the weekend: “£1m per mast. So who will benefit from costly new Highland phone lines?” (see here)]. The Shared Rural Network (SRN) was launched in 2020 to improve 4G mobile coverage in rural areas…
It took five FOI requests, but this week I finally managed to get Grid References for the masts the UK Government plans to build for the Shared Rural Network srn.org.uk. These are plotted above on the Wild Land areas designated by NatureScot nature.scot/doc/wild-land Wild Land is of course uninhabited, with no public roads or premises….
Following Peter Page’s post on 18th January (see here) showing the consequences of the failure to provide basic visitor infrastructure at Rowardennan below Ben Lomond , on 6th February the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) published a notice on the Public Contracts Scotland portal (see here). This showed the LLTNPA had awarded…
On 20th October Highland Council validated a planning application (see here or ref 23/04700/FUL) to erect a 25m high telecommunications mast high on Creag Dubh between Newtonmore and Laggan. Since Creag Dubh is protected as a Site of Scientific Interest the mast requires full planning permission and Highland Council has the power to reject it….
Gaming the holes in Scotland’s planning system Yesterday I was notified by Highland Council that the planning application (Ref 23/04957/FUL) for a telecommunications mast and 2.4km of track in the Wild Land Area at the eastern end of Loch Mullardoch had been withdrawn. A small bit of good news. Highland Council has already withdrawn all…
Parkswatch has already featured the Shared Rural Networks (SRN) scheme, and some instances of its potential impact (see here), (here) and (here). Some digging (mostly by others) reveals that the potential impact of the SRN scheme is much bigger and much worse that many people previously thought. To recap, the Shared Rural Networks (SRN) scheme is…
The Balloch and Haldane Community Council, who resigned en masse after backing the Flamingo Land development, is back up and running again with new people. That is a very good thing for the local community and Parkswatch is pleased to support their work by featuring this article by Lynne Somerville, their vice-chairperson, which is also…
On Monday objectors to the proposal to build a telecommunications mast in the heart of Torridon (see here) were informed the application has been withdrawn. A small but significant victory which shows that the roll-out UK Government’s Shared Rural Network programme is far from a foregone conclusion. There had been 92 comments from the public…
In a recent post on the proposed telecommunications mast at the western end of Loch Mullardoch (see here), I criticised the organisations which have rightly formed a coalition agains the Shared Rural Network programme for not campaigning hard enough to protect Scotland’s finest wild land from descretation. Those organisations – I am a member of…
Having written fairly extensively about the impact of grazing on landslips, earlier this week I was alerted that sheep had got into the new native wood plantation intended to help stabilise the slopes above the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful. I contacted Nick Halls, a contributor to Parkswatch, who by chance was returning…
I am not sure when I first saw the bright green plastic tree tubes on the left of the A82 heading north from Crianlarich but on Saturday I stopped to have a look. The site is much easier to access than previously as in 2020 the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority granted planning…
Yet another planning application for a telecommunication mast has appeared (see here), this time in the heart of Torridon on land owned by the National Trust for Scotland. This is a National Scenic Area, a Wild Land Area and the walk through from Glen Torridon to Loch Torridon one of the finest in Scotland. One…
A week ago Iain Cameron copied me into his tweet on a track on the Glenure Estate on the eastern side of Ben Sgulaird. He was right, it is monstrous. His tweet has now attracted over 65K views, an indication of the level of interest from people in what is happening to the landscape of…
The UK Government, landowners and telecommunications masts – the landscape and environmental impacts
Who benefits from the telecommunication masts? The spate of new telecommunications masts which, as George Allan from the North East Mountain Trust explained on Monday (see here), threaten some of Scotland’s finest landscapes are intended to eliminate “total not spots”. They form part of the Shared Rural Network programme and are being funded by…
Planning applications are coming in thick and fast for 25 metre communications masts in remote hill country in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Digital Connectivity Programme – the Shared Rural Network. Some appear to have almost no public benefit and are proposed for Scotland’s finest landscapes. Anyone for near to the Falls…
The Luibeg mast planning application Yesterday the planning application for the proposed telecommunications mast above the Luibeg bridge on the Mar Lodge estate (see here) was temporarily withdrawn by the developer “in light of recent consultation responses received“. The application was rapidly developing into a test case for plans to erect similar masts (with access tracks…
An application (link here) to erect a 20m digital communications mast adjacent to the Luibeg footbridge and the paths to the Lairg Ghru and to Coire Sputan Dearg has been called in by Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) for a decision. Background to the Luibeg application As readers of Patchwatch will know, this area is…
On 23rd June the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority issued a decision to Fountain Forestry UK Ltd that Prior Approval was not needed for “Construction of 800m of new forest track, upgrade of 330m forest track, formation of turning and stacking areas, upgrade of 2no existing bridges and construction of 3no small span…