Rob Edwards

Trump under fire from council for breaking planning rules at golf resort

from Sunday Herald, 16 June 2013

The American property developer, Donald Trump, is facing unprecedented criticism from Aberdeenshire Council for repeatedly breaching planning rules at his controversial golf resort.

The billionaire tycoon, who paid a flying visit to Scotland earlier this month, has applied for planning permission five times in the last 18 months for construction work he has already carried out. He is now being asked to submit a sixth request for retrospective permission.

The applications for Menie Estate on the Aberdeenshire coast include a 141-space car park, a temporary clubhouse, two converted guesthouses with 21 bedrooms, office accommodation, an elaborate fountain, two illuminated signs and a large earthen embankment.

Though the council has approved the five applications, it has decided for the first time to express concern about Trump’s behaviour. Since his £750 million resort was originally given planning permission in November 2008, Aberdeenshire Council has been an unswerving supporter of Trump’s golfing developments.

But a recent meeting of the council’s Formartine Area Committee agreed without opposition to write to the Trump Organisation to express “dissatisfaction with the number of retrospective planning applications”. Eleven councillors sit on the committee, including five nationalists, two conservatives, two liberal democrats and two independents.

Wild flowers are being wiped out by industrial farming

from Sunday Herald, 16 June 2013

Many of the wild flowers that brighten the countryside are disappearing because governments and farmers are failing to protect them, a new report is warning.

Colourful plants such as corn marigolds, field gentians and wild pansies are in serious decline. So are the insects and birds that plants support, including marsh fritillary butterflies, great yellow bumblebees, lapwings and curlews.

The pesticides and monoculture crops favoured by large-scale industrial farmers are destroying the natural diversity of the countryside, the report says. It demands the reform of rural support funding to encourage farmers to help wildlife rather than hinder it.

The report on Scotland’s farmland is being published this week by the conservation group, Plantlife, to coincide with the Royal Highland Show at Ingliston near Edinburgh, one of the highlights of the agricultural year.

The report argues that plants are being wiped out by the “simplification” of the landscape caused by intensive, specialised farming. The number of wild cornflowers has dropped by 99% over the last 40 years, it points out, and arable flowers are declining faster than any other group of plants.

Between 1998 and 2007 the area of enclosed, improved grassland in Scotland increased by nine per cent but the richness of its plant species fell by eight per cent. The number of plant species in the more extensive rough grazing land has also declined.

Revealed: the wildlife jewels in Scotland’s crown that are being ruined

from Sunday Herald, 26 May 2013

More than one in five of Scotland’s most precious animals, forests, flowers, firths, lochs, bogs and mountains are neglected or damaged, according to a major new assessment by the Scottish government’s wildlife agency.

Over 1,100 of the nation’s natural treasures have been officially rated as poor because successive governments have failed to protect them from landowners, farmers, the fishing industry, developers, polluters and other dangers.

The species under threat include harbour seals, puffins, natterjack toads, native pines, juniper trees, the alpine sow thistle and the small blue butterfly. Amongst the protected sites that have been spoiled are the Cuillins, Ben Nevis, Glen Coe, Loch Lomond, the Firth of Forth and the River Tweed.

Conservation groups condemn the damage to the “jewels in the crown” of Scotland’s environment as “totally unacceptable”. They are demanding urgent action from government ministers, who insist they are working hard to tackle the problems.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has released its latest assessment, revealing the state of 5,367 designated “natural features” contained in 1,872 legally protected areas across the country. Altogether, 21.9% of the species and habitats are classified as “in unfavourable condition” as at 31 March 2013.

Babcock demands public funding for Rosyth inquiry costs

from Sunday Herald, 19 May 2013

The £40 billion engineering giant, Babcock, is demanding up to £500,000 from the Scottish government’s wildlife agency because it opposed the company’s plans for a major new freight terminal in Fife.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) argued at a public inquiry that the terminal proposed at Rosyth could threaten vital bird colonies in the Firth of Forth. Now Babcock is demanding that SNH use taxpayers’ money to help pay the firm’s expenses at the inquiry. 

The defence, energy and transport multinational has been accused by environmentalists and local residents of trying to “punish” SNH for doing its job. SNH says that it is “robustly contesting” Babcock’s claim.

Babcock, which manages the Faslane nuclear submarine base on the Clyde as well as Rosyth dockyard, has applied for permission to build an international container terminal. This requires a 9.5 metre channel to be dredged in the Forth to allow ships to berth.

SNH argued that the dredging could damage nearby mudflats protected under European law because of their importance for wigeon, shelduck, curlews, oystercatchers and other birds. Babcock, it argued, had to conduct a proper assessment of the environmental risks.

RBS under fire for backing coal companies that blast away mountaintops

from Sunday Herald, 12 May 2013

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is under fierce attack for investing hundreds of millions of pounds in US companies that blast away the summits of mountains to uncover coal.

Over 500 mountaintops have been eradicated by explosives in the Appalachians in West Virginia over the last few years, releasing toxic wastes into streams, polluting the air and threatening the health of local communities. Burning the coal that’s extracted also helps disrupt the climate.

RBS has been named in a report as the world’s seventh biggest financial backer of mountaintop removal (MTR), with £235.6 million ($362.5m) worth of lending and underwriting in 2012. The major US coal companies that benefited from the money are Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources.

RBS is going to come under fire from protestors for funding such large–scale environmental destruction, as its annual general meeting takes place at Gogarburn in Edinburgh on Tuesday. Campaigners will be calling for RBS to pull out of MTR.

“Despite years of greenwashing, RBS is still financing corporations which undertake horrific operations like MTR, threatening the local environment and adding to climate change globally,” said Paul Daly, corporate accountability campaigner at Friends of the Earth Scotland.

Lochhead accused of “spineless sell-out” on bee pesticides

28 April 2013

A new compromise plan by Scotland’s environment minister, Richard Lochhead, to agree - but not implement - a ban on the pesticides blamed for killing bees has been condemned as a “complete fudge” and a “spineless sell-out” that could help usher in “ecological Armageddon”.

Scientists, beekeepers, environmental groups, and politicians reacted angrily yesterday to a bid by the Cabinet Secretary for two years more research before deciding whether or not to restrict the use of nicotine-based nerve poisons used by farmers to kill insects and protect crops.

Lochhead has written to UK ministers urging them to accept proposed European restrictions on neonicotinoid pesticides, due to be discussed in Brussels tomorrow. But he said that the restrictions should only be implemented in 2015 if further evidence proves that bees are being harmed. 

The pesticides have already been banned in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia, and by major retailers in the UK. The proposed European restrictions, which look likely to go ahead, have been backed by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee.

Lochhead, however, argued that the science was not clear-cut. “Given the lack of conclusive evidence I think it would be sensible to carry out a further programme of research over the next two years,” he said.

The opencast coal scars that may never heal

from Sunday Herald, 14 April 2013

The giant wounds on the landscape left by dozens of opencast coal mines across Scotland may never be healed under plans being considered by Scottish ministers.

Community and environment groups are warning that the Scottish government is preparing to allow coal companies to break their promises to restore defunct mines in order to try and help the deeply troubled industry.

Because of financial difficulties, Scottish Coal said last month it was axing 450 of its 758 workforce, and closing four of its nine opencast mines. Another opencast company that operates five mines in Scotland, ATH Resources, went into administration in December.

The Scottish government told the Sunday Herald that its industry deregulation guru, Professor Russel Griggs, was leading a working group “to explore issues affecting the Scottish coal industry”. Amongst the issues under review was “the restoration of future opencast coal sites”.

Griggs, who chairs the Scottish government's Regulatory Review Group, has been asked by the energy minister, Fergus Ewing MSP, to brief MSPs on progress. The briefing is due to take place at Holyrood on 17 April.

Dr Richard Dixon, director of Friends of the Earth Scotland, pointed out that communities suffering opencast mining had been assured that the huge holes, heaps and dirt tracks would be cleaned up. “It seems these promises are being widely broken and the government may even be working to let the industry off the hook at more sites,” he said.

“These companies have made large profits at the expense of the environment and local businesses. Instead of trying to prop up an ailing industry, the government needs to guarantee that overdue restoration work will get underway.”

Row over the bird fair linked to an estate that's killed birds

from Sunday Herald, 07 April 2013

A bitter row has erupted over the staging of a major event celebrating wild birds at the stately home of a lord who owns an estate with one of the worst records for illegally persecuting birds of prey.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) in Scotland has come under fierce fire for hosting its popular Scottish Birdfair next month at Hopetoun House, the palatial pile peopled by Lord Hopetoun and his family on the Firth of Forth near Edinburgh.

Lord Hopetoun is owner of the 11,000-acre Leadhills grouse-shooting estate in South Lanarkshire, which has been repeatedly linked to wildlife crime incidents. Estate gamekeepers have been convicted for laying poisoned bait and shooting an owl, and last October a golden eagle was found shot close to the estate’s border, and has since died.

In the past Hopetoun has denied that he is responsible for the management of his estate, which is on long-term lease to a sporting company registered in Delaware, USA. But this is questioned by a land campaigner who has studied the lease.

Ronnie Graham, an expert on birds of prey and a veteran member of the Scottish Raptor Study Groups, is calling for a boycott of the RSPB birdfair. “I’m just furious at the RSPB’s blatant disregard for their members’ and general public opinion,” he told the Sunday Herald.

How wildlife has suffered from Scotland’s £575m farming subsidies

from Scottish Wildlife magazine, March 2013

Lapwings used to be one of those birds that defined the countryside. They were always there, swooping and flocking, flashing black and white in the air, racing across the ground, or standing crested and proud.

Their loud, liquid ‘pee-wit’ call was the soundtrack to every lowland walk. Sometimes, during the nesting season, they would become impossible to ignore as they sought to protect their chicks by dive-bombing anyone who came close. 

These days, however, you have to be lucky to see lapwings. According to the government wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), their population in Scotland has crashed by more than 50% over the last ten years.

Distressingly, the same could be starting to happen to another of the birds that has characterised the countryside – skylarks. They have declined 14% over the last decade, says SNH, particularly in the last couple of years.

There is also evidence that kestrels and rooks have suffered, along with other animals, insects and plants. Specialist species of butterflies decreased by 48% between 1979 and 2007, according to a 2010 report by the Rural Policy Centre at the then Scottish Agricultural College.

The feature that all these species have in common is that they live on farmland, suggesting that farming has been eroding biodiversity. There are other species that seem to have done better, like swallows and goldfinches, but experts think that the overall trend could be downwards, and that changing agricultural practices must take a share of the blame.

Ministers under pressure to ban pesticides blamed for killing bees

from Sunday Herald, 03 March 2013 

Scottish ministers are under mounting pressure to defy the Westminster government and back a European ban on toxic pesticides blamed for killing bees.

A powerful coalition of environmental groups is urging the Scottish environment secretary, Richard Lochhead, to support a move by the European Commission to restrict the use of nicotine-based nerve agents designed to kill insects that prevent crops from growing.

Their campaign has been backed by the Scottish National Party MEP, Alyn Smith, who is calling on his party colleagues at Holyrood to change their minds. To use incomplete science as an excuse for delaying a ban is a “shoddy lobbying tactic”, he said.

So far Lochhead has steadfastly supported the UK government’s rejection of a ban, stressing that there are “gaps” in the science and concerns for farmers. But the Sunday Herald understands that some of his senior officials now regard restrictions as inevitable. 

Environmentalists point to more than 30 scientific studies suggesting that the pesticides are harming bees and other wildlife, including some from Scottish universities. Bees and other pollinating insects like bumblebees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies are vital to the production of food, and are reckoned to be worth £43 million a year to the Scottish economy.

Anger over decline of geology in schools

from Sunday Herald, 03 March 2013

The vital science of geology, which was born and celebrated in Scotland, is disappearing from high schools because it is being dropped from the curriculum.

The education secretary, Michael Russell MSP, is facing mounting pressure from pupils, teachers, academics and experts to reverse a decision to abandon higher geology qualifications in 2015.

Geology, or earth science, is the study of the rocks under our feet, and is crucial to understanding the dangers of climate pollution, as well as the extraction of oil, gas, gold and other minerals. The 18th century Scottish scientist, James Hutton, is known as the father of modern geology, and Scotland is home to some of the world’s most famous geological sites.

But geology has suffered a sharp decline in Scottish schools, with only a tiny handful now offering the subject compared to about 40 in the past. The number of pupils taking geology highers fell from 63 in 2011 to 17 in 2012, and no new geology teachers have been trained in Scotland since 1985. 

Concern was also voiced last year about declines in modern languages like German, French and Spanish in secondary schools. More than half Scotland’s schools were reported to have dropped a requirement for pupils to study a foreign language until S4.

Plans for massive expansion of opencast coal

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2013

Private companies are planning a massive expansion of opencast coal mining in Scotland, according to information released by the UK government’s Coal Authority.

As many as 21 developments are being proposed across the central belt and in the south to dig out more than 37 tonnes of coal. Many are extensions of existing mines, but some are major new sites.

The largest proposal is by Scottish Coal for Cauldhall in Midlothian, which is believed to contain as much as 10 million tonnes of coal. According to campaigners, this is going to run into major opposition.

More opencast mining is also planned for East Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, the Lothians, Falkirk and the Scottish Borders (see table below). The coal industry says it must expand to survive because existing mines are nearing exhaustion.

But the protest group, Coal Action Scotland, argues that coal is a dying industry that is wrecking the climate and destroying local communities. The industry is facing financial difficulties, it says, which cast doubt on its ability to keep its promises of restoration.

One coal company, ATH Resources, went into administration in December. The biggest, Scottish Coal, has had to shed staff, cut wages and mothball a site.

Green light for plan to drain loch to mine coal

from Sunday Herald, 27 January 2013 

A controversial plan to drain an entire loch to make way for an opencast coal mine has been given the go-ahead by the Scottish government’s green watchdog, despite advice from its own experts that it would damage the environment.

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has approved a scheme by Scottish Coal to empty Loch Fitty, near Dunfermline in Fife, and dig up 3.4 million tonnes of coal from underneath its bed.

Sepa’s experts initially warned that the plan would have a negative impact on people and the water environment. But internal emails show that their advice was revised to make it more favourable to the development at the request of senior managers.

Local residents and environmental groups, appalled by the “massively destructive” plan, have now appealed to Scottish ministers to intervene and review the plan. If that fails, they are threatening to complain to the European Commission.

“This looks like a desperate attempt by Scottish Coal to generate extra profits by ripping out every last ounce of coal from beneath Fife that it can,” said Lang Banks, the new director of WWF Scotland.

“It would be wrong to drain Loch Fitty to extract additional coal, at the cost of causing environmental damage and depriving the local community of its amenity value. Scottish ministers must review this proposal with a matter of urgency.”

Scottish government fails to ban pesticide blamed for poisoning bees

from Sunday Herald, 23 December 2012

The Scottish government has come under fierce fire for failing to ban pesticides that are blamed for poisoning bees and threatening Scotland’s £100 million soft fruit industry.

The environment minister, Richard Lochhead MSP, has refused to outlaw the use of nicotine-based toxic chemicals used by farmers to kill insects that damage crops. This is despite mounting scientific evidence that the toxins harm bees, which pollinate strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruits.

The 30,000-member Scottish Wildlife Trust is now launching a campaign to ban the pesticides, known as neonicotinoids. Trust officials met with Lochhead earlier this month, but came away frustrated by his failure to act.

“We are extremely disappointed with the Scottish government’s response to our call for a moratorium on neonicotinoids,” said the trust’s head of policy, Dr Maggie Keegan.

“We urge the government to adopt the precautionary principle and ban these chemicals until there is convincing scientific evidence that pollinator populations are not significantly harmed.”

The trust warned that delaying a ban could have a “devastating” impact on pollination, which is economically vital, particularly to the soft fruit growing industry. Neonicotinoids already face bans or restrictions in France, Germany and Italy, but not in the UK.

The chemicals are made by multi-national pesticide companies to paralyse insects by attacking their nervous systems. With sales of over £1 billion a year they are the world’s most widely used insecticide, and are applied to 10% of Scotland’s crop-growing land, mostly to protect oil seed rape.

The hill that’s going to be eaten away by a quarry

from Sunday Herald, 02 December 2012  

An historic hill will be entirely eaten away by a quarry and disappear from the skyline under plans to be considered by a local authority this week.

Sheep Hill, in the Kilpatrick Hills on the Clyde in Dunbartonshire, is the site of ancient Bronze and Iron Age forts. But local residents and experts say that they will be destroyed by the expansion of a stone quarry.

The hill also features in a famous painting by the 19^th century Scottish landscape artist, John Knox, in the Kelvingrove art gallery in Glasgow. It is used by geology teachers to show how the landscape has been shaped by volcanoes and ice ages.

Allowing the hill to be wiped off the map would be “an act of wanton destruction of our environment and inheritance”, according to Clydebelt, a local environmental group. They are calling for Scottish ministers to intervene to save the hill.

“Sheep Hill is liable to be destroyed,” said the group’s secretary, Sam Gibson. “This would leave a gaping hole in the side of the hills showing the workings of the quarry and fully visible from Bowling, Old Kilpatrick, Erskine, the Erskine Bridge and further afield.”

Move to defy Westminster to protect soil

for Sunday Herald, 02 December 2012

Scottish councillors have defied the UK government in a bid to prevent soils across Europe from being damaged by developers, farmers and pollution.

A European Union committee agreed on Friday to push for the introduction of a new law to force countries to protect their soils so they can grow more food, contain climate-wrecking carbon, control floods and limit landslides.

But the move, led by the Labour leader of Stirling Council, Corrie McChord, flies in the face of Westminster, which has long opposed a European directive on soils. “I don’t agree with the UK’s views on this,” said McChord. “There is an urgent need for action.”

With the expert help of the Scottish Environment Protect Agency (Sepa), McChord won the backing of the 350-strong Committee of the Regions in Brussels for a report urging tougher legal measures to protect soils. “I hope this will kickstart the argument, and help break the logjam,” he told the Sunday Herald.

Coastal beauty spots at centre of campaign for first marine national park

from Sunday Herald, 18 November 2012

By Rob Edwards and Iain S Bruce

Five of Scotland's most famous stretches of coastline have been put forward by a campaign to create the country's first coastal and marine national park.

Spurred by the results of a new survey from the National Trust for Scotland, leading experts and environmental organisations have called upon the Scottish Government to consider conferring national park status upon one of the nation's best-known coastal areas.

The leading contenders being touted for protected status are: the Solway Firth; the Argyll Islands and Coast; Ardnamurchan, Small Isles, and the South Skye coast; North Skye Coast and Wester Ross; and North Uist, the Sound of Harris, Harris and South Lewis.

Citing figures revealing that a majority of the population strongly favour conserving wild marine landscapes, campaigners believe that unless action is taken, some of the country's most beautiful stretches of coastline could be endangered.

Marine expert Dr Richard Luxmoore, senior conservation adviser to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), said: "Most of us live within 10 miles of the coast and the sea has always been a major source of income for coastal communities. Increasingly this is delivered through tourists who appreciate its scenery and wildlife, and it is vital that we recognise this golden goose through better protection."

The call for action came as NTS shared the first results of a poll on Scotland's landscapes with the Sunday Herald, which found that 58% of Scots feel that wild coastal areas need to be conserved for future generations.

Are we failing to protect our most precious wildlife sites?

from Scottish Wildlife Trust magazine, November 2012

Vivid red in the dark water, arctic charr have been swimming round Loch Rannoch since the last ice age. But a millionaire property developer wanted to build a seven-storey underwater restaurant for the rich in the middle of their spawning grounds.

The up-market eatery, an artificial island supposedly modelled on an Iron Age crannog, was to be one of the main attractions of an exclusive, £1.3 billion, holiday resort planned for the Dall Estate in Perthshire. It was to be accompanied by a luxury hotel, two golf courses, a concert hall, a shopping centre and a cosmetic surgery clinic.

Staying at the resort would be “hideously expensive”, promised the estate’s owner and developer, Malcolm James. Visitors would have to pay £2 million to join a club, £500,000 in annual membership fees and up to £14,000 to stay the night.

He claimed the development would be “completely environmentally friendly” and would cause “zero pollution”. But in the end few believed him: after more than 1,100 objections, his planning application was thrown out by Perth and Kinross Council in June 2010.

As well as threatening the rare arctic charr in the loch, the resort would have damaged the adjacent Black Wood of Rannoch, one of Scotland’s few remaining fragments of ancient Caledonian pine forest. Both habitats are protected under European law because they have been designated as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs).

Scotland’s trees threatened by rapid rise in alien diseases

from Sunday Herald, 04 November 2012

Scotland’s renowned and historic woodlands are under threat from a multiplying plague of alien bugs, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed. 

As well as ash dieback, which could wipe out virtually all the country’s beloved native ash trees, there are at least another five imported diseases and pests now afflicting Scottish trees. A further ten, which could pose future dangers, have been detected in England and Wales. 

So far in 2012, four outbreaks of new tree diseases have been recorded in the UK – more than in any previous year. According to the government’s Forestry Commission, the rocketing number of previously unknown diseases is creating “unprecedented threats”.

One government scientist was quoted yesterday warning that there was a “tidal wave of pathogens” entering the UK. “It is terrifying,” said Martin Ward, a plant health officer at the Food and Environment Research Agency. “It will be very difficult to stop them coming in.”

A fungal disease called Phytophthora austrocedrae, which kills juniper trees, was found earlier this year in Glen Artney in Perthshire. Ash dieback, or Chalara fraxinea, is now suspected at four sites in Scotland, while sweet chestnut blight and Asian longhorn beetles have infected trees in England.

Landowner accused of damaging ancient pine forest

from Sunday Herald, 04 November 2012 

A Highland landowner accused of “blatant vandalism” in a protected ancient Caledonian pine forest is under investigation by the Scottish government’s wildlife agency.

Michael Bruce, the owner of the 10,000-hectare Glen Tanar estate on Deeside, is to be visited by officials from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) tomorrow after complaints that forestry operations had damaged trees, killed plants and scarred the landscape.

The alleged damage was discovered by Aberdeen mountaineer, Derek Pyper, during a cycle ride up Glen Tanar on 17 October. When he reached Halfway Hut, he was shocked to see that wide tracks had been bulldozed into the woods.

“There was a large area of what had been attractive woodland reduced to deep mud – not a pretty site,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“Many mature trees had been deeply scraped with a large machine, which virtually sentences them to death. At one side of the machine track, a beautiful, old Caledonian pine had some of its large branches broken and left hanging.”

“After my initial shock at this blatant vandalism, I felt sad that an estate like Glen Tanar had allowed this to happen,” he said. “I’ve always thought of Glen Tanar as being one of the more public spirited and environmentally aware estates in Deeside and Donside. It seems I’m wrong.”