|
Back to Land Reform
Homepage
20 May 2003
Draft Scottish Outdoor Access Code:
Comments on the SNH Consultation Document
(Filed 20 May 03)
www.land-care.org.uk
Land-Care intends to run a series of articles
on the Draft Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) which was published
by SNH on 27th March 2003 (1). Copies of the draft
SOAC can be obtained by e-mailing to: mark.wrightman@snh.gov.uk
or from HMSO.
The consultation periods ends 30th June 2003,
by which date any comments should have been lodged with
Bridget Dales, Recreation & Access Group,
SNH, Battleby, Redgorton, Perth PH1 3EW
E-mail: soac-consultation@snh.gov.uk
General Comments
Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) produced a previous
document in 1998 entitled:
Access to the Countryside for open-air
recreation.
SNH’s Advice to Government. SNH, pp. 1-58
(1998)
In response to this a number of comments/submissions
were sent to SNH and to other bodies such as the National Farmers
Union of Scotland (NFUS) and the Scottish Landowners Federation
(SLF) who claim to represent some of the farmers and landowners
of Scotland.
Among those responses was the article by Andrew
Mylius entitled:
“Access: The Reality for Farmers, Landowners,
Foresters and all Rural Residents” (2).
This article (as with others) was sent to SNH,
NFUS and the SLF, all of whom seem to have paid remarkably little
attention to it.
However, Andrew Mylius,
St Fort Farm, Newport-on-Tay, Fife, articulates very clearly the
concerns of farmers (especially livestock farmers) whose farms are
close to urban settlements. Furthermore, he is in a particularly
strong position to express his views as he has an outstanding number
of visitors to his farm each year, has been greatly involved in
conservation and won a major award for his woodland initiatives.
He is also well known for his pedigree livestock.
As far as Land-Care is aware Andrew’s article
has never once been mentioned in any of the in-house publications
of either the NFUS or the SLF. Nor have these organisations, to
Land-Care’s knowledge, provided any notice to their members
that copies of this article could be obtained on request. Apparently,
SNH, NFUS and SLF all just shelved it.
Both Andrew and myself have repeatedly raised
the matter at NFUS and SLF local committees, but no amount of effort
seemed to have any significant impact on the utterings of the senior
officials within these organisations. The NFUS chose to concentrate
on the issue of liability, while the SLF seemed to go out of its
way to deny that there was a problem with such open access to farms
next to urban settlements, especially where abundant rights of way
already exist. Indeed, the SLF reported in their publication Landowning
Scotland that they took government officials round their
then president’s farm outside Dalkeith and around a previous
convener’s farm near Glenrothes - neither of which in my view
are representative of most farms that exist next to urban settlements.
To Land-Care’s knowledge no government officials were invited
to visit any farms not owned by SLF senior office holders.
Following the publication of Bulletin 19 by SNH
in 2003 concerning Access to the Scottish Countryside (3),
Andrew wrote a further article expressing his concerns as he saw
them in February 2003 (4).
This too was given personally to officials of
both NFUS and SLF. Again, to my knowledge this has never been referred
to in any communication to their members by either of these bodies
- either in print or on their websites. Sadly the SLF website has
been essentially defunct for many months, so that the SLF is highly
ineffective in its communication with the members (alleged to be
some 3000) that it claims to represent.
In order to bring both Andrew’s articles
to wider notice LandCare Scotland is publishing them in Volume 1,
p 3, and Volume 4, p 3, respectively.
Both Andrew’s papers are published on the
Land-Care website as follows:
“Access: The Reality for Farmers, Landowners,
Foresters and all Rural Residents”
(Filed 11th Nov 2002, 2)
Land Reform and the Access Code: Problems
and Unanswered Questions
(Filed 26th February 2003, 4)
Hopefully Andrew can be persuaded to contribute
a further article following the publication by SNH of the Draft
SOAC.
Others wishing to contribute would be very welcome.
The veterinarian Terry
Raeside also responded to the initial SNH paper. His letter
written in 1999 to the then Scottish Executive at Pentland House,
Edinburgh - the home of what is now referred to as SEERAD - emphasises
the importance of biosecurity on farms.
Land Reform: Response to Scottish Executive
Proposals for Legislation
Veterinary Hazards to Open Access to Enclosed Agricultural Land
Terry Raeside (5)
Terry Raeside raises very important points about
biosecurity on farms - and this
was before the outbreak of FMD. What he refers to are the basic
principles of hygiene on farms, that appear to have been overlooked
by those drafting the Access Code.
As with the important points raised by Andrew
Mylius described above, those made by Terry Raeside need repeating.
Accordingly Terry’s letter is reproduced both on this website
(click
here) and in LandCare Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34.
Future Articles
It would appear that those who wrote the latest
draft Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) seem to know very little
about the practicalities of farming, especially livestock farming.
For their benefit, and as part of the education of the public whom
SNH encourage to act responsibly, Land-Care will run a series of
short, simple articles attempting to explain
- what gates, fences and dykes are for
- why the care of the grassland on livestock
farms is so important, and how it is so easily damaged
- why biosecurity, especially on livestock farms,
is so important
- what is meant by a “closed herd”,
and why it is so important not to get the breeding programme messed
up by folks leaving gates open (even once)
- why farmers' efforts at conservation of wildlife
should not be thwarted
etc
Visitors to this website are encouraged to contribute.
www.land-care.org.uk
References
1. Scottish Outdoor Access Code.
SNH publishes consultation document.
(Filed 27 March 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click
here to view).
2. Mylius, Andrew (2003). Access:
the Reality for Farmers, Landowners, Foresters and all Rural Residents.
LandCare Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 3-18.
(Reproduced, with permission, on Land-Care,
11 November 2002, click
here to view).
3. Land Reform (Scotland) Bill.
SNH Recreation and Access Update: Access Legislation Bulletin: News
Letter No.19.
(Filed 21 February 2003, www.land-care.org.uk,
click
here to view).
4. Mylius, Andrew (2003). Land
Reform and the Access Code: Problems and Unanswered Questions.
(Reproduced, with permission, on Land-Care,
26 February 2003, click
here to view).
5. Raeside, Terry (2003). Land
Reform: Response to Scottish Executive Proposals for Legislation.
Veterinary Hazards to Open Access to Enclosed Agricultural Land.
LandCare Scotland, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34.
(Reproduced, with permission, on Land-Care,
15 November 2002, click
here to view).
|
