Rob Edwards

Exposed: the "evil scheming" of a property developer

from Sunday Herald 29 August 2010

A leading Scottish property developer employed “evil scheming” to gain access to historic land to build a lucrative private housing estate, according to documents seen by the Sunday Herald.

The Lomond Group secretly planned to bounce Fife Council into ordering the demolition of a 300-year-old wall in the conservation village of Falkland, so farmland behind it could be opened up for a development likely to reap a multi-million pound profit.

The company’s behaviour has been condemned as “bullying” and “despicable” by residents, who described the destruction of the wall as “an act of vandalism”. Lomond said the wall had to come down because it was unsafe.

A 20-metre stretch of sandstone wall was knocked down by a Lomond mechanical digger on April 7.

Residents have argued the company manipulated the council to try and further its development plans. Their suspicions have now been reinforced by two company documents.

Learning to love wasps

from Sunday Herald, 29 August 2010

We all know the scene.

You’re just sitting down to relax in your garden on a warm, sunny day, maybe with a chilled glass of wine and a newspaper ... and then they attack.

Buzzing at your head in a yellow and black blur, dive-bombing your ears in a desperate hunt for a sugar fix. Whatever you do, they just won’t go away – and nor does the threat of a painful sting.

Wasps are probably the nation’s most hated insect, provoking widespread fear and loathing, and death by rolled up newspaper. But campaigners are about to try and change all that. They want us to learn to love the wasp.

The insect conservation group, Buglife, will tomorrow launch a major campaign to rebrand wasps as “wonderful”. You shouldn’t kill them, the group says, you should try and be nice to them.

Buglife will be appealing to members of the public not to swat wasps. Instead, the group suggests, people should “calmly waft” or give a “little puff” to shoo them away.

“I love wasps. They are some of the most fascinating creatures on the planet,” said the TV presenter and naturalist, Steve Backshall, who is backing Buglife’s campaign.

Scottish Natural Heritage to shed 150 jobs

from Sunday Herald, 22 August 2010

The Scottish government’s wildlife agency is facing the loss of 150 jobs because of spending cutbacks caused by the financial crisis, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

Scottish Natural Heritage is preparing to cut its staff by a fifth in order weather drastic reductions in its budget expected next year. It is also considering slashing grants to voluntary groups, selling property and cutting schemes to help farmers by managing geese.

The revelation has provoked concern from some environmentalists, but barely-disguised pleasure from others critical of SNH’s failings. It comes from a report (152Kb pdf) of a closed meeting of SNH’s board released under freedom of information law.

“Beyond 2010 the public sector financial outlook was bleak,” recorded the minute of the meeting in Edinburgh on 23 February this year. The agency’s grant of £66.86 million for 2010-11 is expected to be significantly reduced next year.

New evidence that pesticide could be killing bees

from Sunday Herald, 08 August 2010

The UK government is under mounting pressure to ban a toxic pesticide after new evidence suggested it could be to blame for the catastrophic collapse of bee populations.

A Dutch scientific study says that bees could be poisoned by long term exposure to small concentrations of nicotine-based insecticides known as neonicotinoids. They are widely used by British farmers to kill insects that damage crops.

Because of concerns that they may be wiping out bees, their use has been banned or restricted in France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. So far, however, the British government has resisted calls for a ban.

According to beekeepers, honeybee populations in the UK crashed by nearly a third in 2008. The implications are alarming, as bees contribute £200 million a year to the UK economy and pollinate one in every three mouthfuls of food that we eat.

The crash has sometimes been labeled “colony collapse disorder”, and its causes are disputed. But some scientists argue that neonicotinoids, which paralyse insects by attacking the nervous system, are implicated.

The new study is by Dr Henk Tennekes, a consultant toxicologist from Zutphen in the Netherlands. Published in the latest edition of the journal, Toxicology (subscription required), it says that very small quantities of toxins can be hazardous in the long run.

Widespread opposition to new coal plant

from Sunday Herald, 01 August 2010

Government-backed plans for a huge new coal plant are running into a rising tide of opposition from a powerful range of groups worried about pollution, wildlife and tourism.

The £3 billion scheme by Clydeport’s owners, Peel Holdings, to build Scotland’s first new fossil fuel power station for decades at Hunterston in North Ayrshire is facing thousands of objections from faith groups, international aid charities, wildlife agencies, environmentalists and businesses.

Amongst those who have now come out against the scheme are Christian Aid, Oxfam, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Largs Yacht Haven and the Clyde Muirshiel Regional Park Authority. A new coal station would harm people in developing countries, they say, as well as threatening otters, birds and businesses locally.

The breadth of opposition to the Hunterston plant creates problems for the Scottish government, which has already endorsed it as part of Scotland’s National Planning Framework. The plant has also been rejected by a majority of the Scottish Parliament, and it is the subject of a court challenge from objectors.

A public consultation by Scottish ministers is to due to close on 20 August. But the Sunday Herald understands that well over 5,000 representations have already been received, the vast majority of which are objections.

SNP government accused of failing on wildlife crime

from Sunday Herald, 18 July 2010

Animal killers could be getting away with murder across large parts of Scotland because two of the country’s major police forces have no officers dedicated to fighting wildlife crime.

Neither Northern Constabulary, which covers the Highlands and Islands, nor Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary have any full-time wildlife crime officers. This has prompted accusations that the Scottish government is failing to tackle the illegal poisoning, trapping and poaching of wild creatures.

Scotland has seen a huge rise in recorded wildlife crime over the last decade. According to official figures, the total number of wildlife offences reported every year leapt from 140 to 384 between 1999 and 2008.

Landowners and gamekeepers are blamed for deliberately poisoning birds of prey to protect grouse for shooting. Last year saw a record 27 birds of prey killed by pesticides, including 19 buzzards, four red kites and two golden eagles.

Up to March this year, there had already been 22 pesticide poisoning incidents investigated by government scientists, involving buzzards, red kites, owls, dogs and foxes. In the past cats, badgers and otters have also been victims of suspected poisoning, probably from eating laced bait.

Why we need to green the concrete jungles

from Sunday Herald, 11 July 2010

More than 70 per cent of people in Scotland are deprived of easy access to woodlands, putting their health and well-being at risk, says a new report.

In some areas like Renfrewshire, South Ayrshire and East Lothian, the proportion of the population without accessible woodlands nearby rises to over 90%. 

This is despite mounting evidence that green spaces can do much to reduce the stress of living in 21st century concrete jungles. Studies have shown that greater exposure to nature can help combat mental illness and reduce social problems.

The Woodland Trust, a conservation charity, argues that everyone should have a woodland of two hectares or more within 500 metres of their home. But according to a report it published last week, only 28% of Scots now meet this standard.

This is significantly better than in 2004, when only 15% of Scotland’s population met the standard, and significantly higher than in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. But it still leaves 72% of people without nearby areas of trees to enjoy.

Are Scotland’s national parks failing us?

from Sunday Herald, 20 June 2010

It’s an ugly bug, but it’s a controversial one. That’s because its most northerly home in the UK is about to be covered in concrete.

The slender groundhopper, which looks like a kind of dusky grasshopper, has been found near Aviemore in the Cairngorms where developers have just won permission to build a huge new housing estate.

Its survival is threatened, and wildlife groups are upset. But the issues raised by the fate of this humble insect are not superficial: they go right to the heart of how Scotland treats its natural heritage.

In giving the go-ahead to up to 1,500 new houses at An Camus Mor earlier this month, the Cairngorm National Park Authority has stirred up a hornets’ nest. It is precisely the kind of major development that environmentalists say should never be allowed in a national park.

As well as endangering the slender groundhopper, the housing scheme will threaten wildcats, otters, red squirrels, badgers and several bird species, they argue. It will also damage the landscape, they say, and put more pressure on vulnerable mountain areas.

The park authority voted by a narrow majority to reject advice from its own officials to limit the number of houses to 1,100 to prevent “unacceptable” environmental damage. The authority also ignored a recent report by Scottish government planning officials which concluded that the development breached national planning policies, and wasn’t justified.

Unveiled: undercover eco-spooks emerge from the shadows

from Sunday Herald, 13 June 2010

For 15 years they have been working undercover to expose environmental criminals around the globe, spying on wildlife smugglers, secretly filming animal abusers and infiltrating planet-trashers.

They have witnessed appalling cruelty, adopted numerous fake identities and sometimes put their lives in danger. In so doing they have helped put crooks behind bars, changed government policies and made many headlines.

But they have not, until now, claimed any credit. Today, for the first time, they are emerging from the shadows to court a little publicity for their daring deeds. 

Welcome to the eco-spooks - or, to give them their proper name, Tracks Investigations. They are, as they say, “not MI5, not 9 to 5”, and they boast an “amazing success record.”

They don’t want to be pictured, and some of them don’t want to be named. They don’t like speaking about their current investigations, but they have just set up a website. And they’ve agreed to talk to the Sunday Herald.

Since 1995, Tracks Investigations has carried about 250 investigations in scores of countries. They have exposed destruction of the Amazon rainforest, mass sheep shipments from Australia, pig cargoes trucked across Europe and the stripping of protected peatlands in the UK.

Curbing the hillside ‘vandalism’ of the lairds

from Caledonian Mercury, 07 June 2010

Landowners accused of “mindless vandalism” for bulldozing rough tracks across Scotland’s wild and beautiful landscape are facing calls for a crackdown this week.

MSPs and mountain conservation groups will be demanding tougher controls to prevent scores of hill tracks from scarring slopes and spoiling views across the highlands.

Mountaineers and walkers are angered that landowners can construct “ugly” tracks to enable easier access for stag shooting parties in 4x4 vehicles - without even needing to apply to councils for planning permission.

“It’s outrageous that a privileged few have the power to scar a pristine landscape,” said David Windle, chairman of the North East Mountain Trust, a conservation group. 

“They shouldn’t be allowed to make the tracks in the first place. Thirty years ago they walked the last half a mile for a shoot; now it seems they can’t be bothered.”

Scotland fails to protect endangered wildlife

from Sunday Herald, 23 May 2010

Scotland has failed to meet international targets to protect wildlife, putting dozens of precious animals and plants at risk of extinction.

Ministers and their expert advisers have admitted that they have broken a promise made nine years ago to conserve the nation’s endangered species. As a result iconic animals like the red squirrel and the freshwater pearl mussel, as well as seabirds, butterflies, flowers and insects are all still under threat.

The admission is embarrassing because it comes as the world celebrates the extraordinary variety of nature. Yesterday was international day for biological diversity in the UK, the highlight of the 2010 United Nations (UN) International Year of Biodiversity, involving more than 340 nature conservation groups around the country. 

But 2010 is also the year by which Scotland, along with other countries in Europe, promised in 2001 to “protect and restore the functioning of natural systems and to halt the loss of biodiversity.”

Scottish ministers and their wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), now accept that this aim has not been achieved. Too many native species and natural habitats are still in decline, at risk from farming, forestry, the invasion of alien species and the changing climate.

Only a few lambs are killed by sea eagles, says study

from Caledonian Mercury, 11 May 2010

They are known as “flying barn doors”, and they kill to live. But according to a new study, they don’t kill many lambs.

Sea eagles are Britain’s biggest birds of prey, with wings shaped like barn doors spanning over over eight feet. They were persecuted to extinction in the early 19th century, but are now being reintroduced under a government programme begun in the 1970s.

Their return, however, has not been welcomed by crofters in north west Scotland. They have previously blamed the birds for taking more than 200 young lambs and damaging their livelihoods.

But the new study, conducted for the Scottish government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, suggests that these claims were exaggerated. Less than two per cent of deaths amongst lambs could be attributed to sea eagles, it concluded.

Revealed: Scotland’s farm subsidy millionaires

from Sunday Herald, 09 May 2010

Four farmers in Scotland were given record handouts of more than £1 million each by taxpayers last year, according to new figures released by the Scottish government.

They join the elite club of Europe’s agricultural ‘subsidy millionaires’ who take the most from the public purse to help run their huge farming businesses. Large landowners and aristocrats across Scotland were also given hundreds of thousands of pound each under the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy.

The massive subsidies to rich farmers have infuriated public spending, environmental and anti-poverty campaigners, who say that poor farmers at home and abroad suffer as a result. But they have been defended by landowning and farming groups as necessary to keep down the cost of food.

Figures for the subsidies given in 2009 have been posted online by the Scottish government, in line with freedom of information legislation. In the last two weeks, most other European countries have also released a huge amount of information about agricultural subsidies.

Banana beaks beckon twitchers to Lewis

from Sunday Herald, 02 May 2010

They are nicknamed ‘banana beaks’, they are very mysterious and they are here. Bird-watchers are getting very excited this weekend because the white-billed diver has arrived off the north coast of Lewis.

Also known confusingly as the yellow-billed loon, the bird is famed for its large ivory beak. It is a rare sight around the UK, and is attracting the attention of twitchers, that dedicated band of ornithological enthusiasts who travel hundreds of miles in the hope of being able to tick unusual birds off their lists.

The white-billed diver has the added attraction of being an enigma since so little is know about its life. They breed every summer somewhere in the arctic tundra, but no-one knows where they spend the winter.

“Seeing a white-billed diver always quickens the pulse,” said Martin Scott, the conservation officer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on the island of Lewis.

The monsters that used to roam Scotland

briefing from Sunday Herald, 25 April 2010

Last week there was news that the footprint of a giant scorpion had been found in Fife. But this is only one of a myriad of strange and extraordinary monsters that used to roam the land and seas millions of years ago.

Experts say there were huge centipedes in Arran, dinosaurs in Skye, flying sharks in Bearsden, weird reptiles in Elgin and woolly mammoths in Kilmarnock. There were probably other bizarre creatures for which evidence is still to be uncovered.

In those days, of course, Scotland was very different. The country started off around 500 million years ago as part of a huge continent called Laurentia in the southern hemisphere of the globe. Over millions of years the land gravitated north, crossed the equator and ended up where it is today. 

During the course of this “continental drift” driven by the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates, Scotland was rammed together with England. Then, some 60 million years ago, Britain broke off from north America and, along with the rest of Europe, moved slowly across the Atlantic.

Evidence of monster scorpions discovered in Fife

from Caledonian Mercury, 20 April 2010

Gigantic scorpions used to roam Fife, according to a unique fossil find by scientists. Footprints preserved in a rock show that huge six-legged, sharp-tailed monsters lumbered across the swamps of the kingdom some 330 million years ago.

The creatures, which predated dinosaurs by millions of years, were about two metres long and one metre wide. That’s about the size of a large dining room table - and somewhat more threatening.

The discovery of the distinctive trail of one of the beasts in a slab of sandstone in north east Fife has thrilled geologists. They say it is the largest known track of any invertebrate animal, and is hence globally significant.

The find is “unique and internationally important”, says the government’s conservation agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). It is unveiling the discovery to the media today, though keeping its exact location secret to prevent it from being damaged by casual visitors.

The growing £13 billion trade that is threatening the world’s wildlife

from Raconteur supplement in The Times, 23 March 2010

It was not quite James Bond cast as 007 Dr Dolittle, but it was dangerous. When Tom Milliken infiltrated the criminals running Indonesia’s illegal trade in endangered sea turtles, he had to shave off his moustache and dye his black hair blond not to be recognised.

“I was personally horrified by my appearance,” he recalls. “But it was the only way I could discover how they do business and the extent of the trade.”

His low-budget deception worked, enabling him to document illegal stockpiles of more than 12 tonnes of hawksbill turtle shell, used for jewellery and ornaments. This prompted a crackdown on the industry and the subsequent collapse of the Indonesian market for turtle shells.

Mr Milliken, who now directs the East and Southern Africa office of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, went undercover in the 1980s. He says that today he would not allow his staff to do what he did then because of “the potential for things to go horribly wrong”.

These days there may be less need for voluntary detective work and the risks which come with it, because official law enforcement agencies take wildlife crime more seriously than they used to. But the international trade in endangered species and their products certainly has not gone away; in fact, some evidence suggests it is getting worse.

After drugs and guns, illegal dealing in animal and plant products is said to be the world’s third largest criminal business. After the loss of natural habitat and the growing disruption caused by climate change, it is one of the biggest threats facing endangered species.

‘Catastrophe’ warning over dead deer

from Sunday Herald, 21 March 2010

Tens of thousands of deer could be facing death by starvation this spring, leaving gruesome piles of dead animals to be discovered in remote glens by walkers, warn deer experts.

The British Deer Society, a charity which promotes deer welfare and management, is predicting a “catastrophe” because Scotland’s long, snowy winter has deprived deer of vital food.

The society has also attacked the Scottish government’s deer agency for failing to clarify the law on “mercy killings” outside the hunting season. This could put stalkers who shoot starving deer to end their suffering at risk of prosecution.

Concern over the plight of Scotland’s one million deer is escalating. Unable to access food for months because of the deep snow cover, they may now be weakened, thin and vulnerable to the cold and wet.

“The ramblers are about to start arriving and they will find heaps of dead deer,” predicted John Bruce, a Scottish spokesman for the British Deer Society. “The deer will come down from the hills, find a quiet glen and then just lie down and expire.”

He pointed out that rain would penetrate deer coats and cool them down enough to finish them off. “If we have rain, we will have a catastrophe,” he told the Sunday Herald.

Sheriff under fire for wildlife outburst

from Sunday Herald, 07 March 2010

One of Scotland’s top sheriffs has come under pressure to quit his leading role in combating wildlife crime after allegedly telling a former police officer concerned about the soft sentences given to wildlife criminals to “get a life”.

Sheriff Kevin Drummond is claimed to have told a police conference on wildlife crime last month that offences against animals weren't even “on the second page” after serious crimes like robbery and assault.

His remarks left delegates, including wildlife crime investigators, shocked and bewildered. They said that Drummond was no longer fit to be involved in the Scottish government’s Partnership for Action against Wildlife Crime (PAW), and demanded that he go.

The row comes ahead of new government figures expected to show that the incidence of illegal poisoning of animals in Scotland reached a record high in 2009. The figures are due to be published by ministers in the next two weeks.

Drummond, who sits as a sheriff in the Scottish Borders, is chairman of PAW’s legislation, regulation and guidance subgroup. He has run mock trials for the government to help train police and procurator fiscals how to handle wildlife offences.

His remarks came at the end of a major wildlife crime conference at the Scottish Police College at Tulliallan on 17 February. Mark Rafferty, a former police wildlife investigator now with the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, questioned whether wildlife offenders should be given tougher sentences.

Highland agency under fire for ‘bad practice’ over mountain railway

from Sunday Herald, 28 February 2010

One of Scotland’s leading enterprise agencies will this week be accused of “unacceptable bad practice” for wasting up to £27 million of public money on the doomed Cairngorm mountain railway.

The Scottish Parliament’s Public Audit Committee will launch a scathing attack on Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) for failing to properly control spending on the controversial funicular railway, which has been repeatedly baled out by taxpayers’ money.

In a report, a copy of which has been leaked to the Sunday Herald, the committee will also criticise HIE for continuing to offer an “open-ended commitment” to funding the funicular. It will demand new controls to ensure that more major cost overruns are not incurred in the future.

The funicular railway, which runs nearly all the way to the summit of Britain’s fifth highest mountain near Aviemore, has been plagued with problems since it was first proposed in the early 1990s (see below). Lack of visitors has meant that it has struggled to make money.

There were many years without enough snow for skiers. But even when there has been plenty of snow, like this winter, the railway has been forced to close because it cannot cope with adverse weather.

The funicular has been shut down for 19 days since the start of this year, frustrating thousands of would-be skiers. This weekend it is closed again, with roads, car parks and buildings submerged under huge piles of drifting snow, after falls of up to two metres.