Rob Edwards

Scotland will stick to EU environmental law, says minister

from Sunday Herald, 24 July 2016

The Scottish Government is promising that it will abide by European Union (EU) environmental law protecting wildlife and preventing pollution despite Brexit.

The cabinet secretary for the environment, Roseanna Cunningham, is pledging not to weaken a raft of Brussels legal measures regarded as crucial for conserving plants and animals and keeping air, water and land clean and healthy.

Her promise comes on the eve of a summit with environmental groups near Perth this week. It is Holyrood’s first clear commitment on green legislation since the UK voted last month to exit from the European Union, and has calmed campaigners’ worst fears.

Conservationists had voiced concerns that Brexit could lead to the weakening of vital laws governing nature areas and the management of fisheries. In the past the Scottish Government has come under fire for breaching European directives on wildlife, air pollution and dirty beaches.

But now Cunningham is seeking to reassure environmentalists. “It’s not always easy for the Scottish Government to comply with EU environmental regulation,” her spokesman told the Sunday Herald.

Row over ‘destruction’ on Cairngorm mountain

from Sunday Herald, 03 July 2016

The Cairngorm ski resort near Aviemore has come under fierce fire for breaching planning permission during construction work high on the much-prized mountain.

The Cairngorm National Park Authority (CNPA) has reprimanded the ski company for creating an access track and re-engineering a slope without consent. The works were part of a scheme to replace the Shieling ski tow in Coire Cas.

The company, Natural Retreats, was ordered to apply for retrospective planning permission for the two unauthorised developments. It submitted an application last week.

The high tops of the Cairngorm mountains are one the most protected environments in Scotland. The high altitude, near-arctic conditions are home to some of the country’s rarest plants and animals.

There has long been controversy over ski developments on Cairngorm, most notably the funicular railway. The latest “destruction” caused by the replacement ski tow angered walkers and conservationists, who complained to the authorities.

Peat to be mined in breach of government policy

from Sunday Herald, 12 June 2016

Plans to dig out large amounts of Scotland’s precious peat from a landowner’s estate near Edinburgh look set to go ahead despite widespread opposition from conservationists and government.

A loophole in the law is likely to allow peat to be extracted from Auchencorth Moss on the Penicuik Estate in breach of local and national planning policy. Peat is a vital store of carbon, and is meant to be protected to help prevent climate pollution.

But because the application by a horticultural company is seeking to renew a 30-year-old old minerals permission, it can’t be rejected. If new conditions are imposed, compensation may also be payable.

The situation has been condemned as “shockingly outdated and inconsistent” by environmentalists. They are calling on ministers to take urgent action to close the loophole.

The 3,000-hectare Penicuik Estate has been owned and run by the Clerk family since 1654. The family is currently headed by Sir Robert Clerk, the 11th Baronet of Penicuik Estate.

The laird, his salmon and an erring TV programme

from Sunday Herald, 17 April 2016

It’s a fishy tale involving a Highland laird who boasts connections to Jane Austen and the Queen, his palatial pile on the River Dee and a syrupy TV documentary that goofed.

Andrew and Nicola Bradford were lauded as an “extraordinary couple” in a programme broadcast on ITV3 last Sunday because of the way they manage Kincardine Castle and their 3,000-acre estate in Aberdeenshire.

But the programme went too far when it wrongly suggested that Andrew caught the salmon eaten by paying guests. If he had, it would have breached the River Dee’s conservation code, and could have been illegal.

Along with shooting, fishing and farming, the one-hour ‘Great Estates’ documentary described how the Bradfords entertained corporate guests to fine wine and food. According to their website, a banquet for 80 costs over £12,000.

On the broadcast Andrew Bradford told guests that his great-great-great-grand-aunt was the author of Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. He said that the Queen used to regularly visit when she was young, and staying at the royal Balmoral estate a short distance away.

But the programme commentary also said that the salmon on the menu was from the river. “In generations gone by, the task of catching the salmon would have fallen to the salaried gamekeepers,” viewers were told.

“But tonight, and on every night when such dinners are hosted, the fish is caught by Andrew himself.”

Complaint over dead fish dumping forces rule change

from Sunday Herald, 10 April 2016

A local complaint to the European Commission over the poor regulation of the disposal of dead fish from salmon farms has forced the Scottish Government to rewrite the rules.

For years the caged salmon industry has been allowed to dump diseased fish in landfill sites because of a loophole in public health law. But ministers have now had to close the loophole and oblige fish farm companies to dispose of dead fish in safer ways.

From the start of 2016 salmon farms must abide by the rules introduced in the wake of the outbreak of mad cow disease (BSE) in the 1980s. The farms have to incinerate, sterilise or compost their wastes, and not just tip them into landfill sites.

The £700 million fish farming industry has long had major problems with many millions of salmon mortalities annually, either caused by disease, excess medication or other causes. According to figures from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa), over the last three years some 38,800 tonnes of dead fish have been recorded at fish farms across Scotland.

Between August 2011 and June 2012 82,663 salmon deaths from disease were recorded at Ardmaddy fish farm in Seil Sound, Argyll. When the local environmental group, Save Seil Sound, asked what had happened to the resulting 257 tonnes of dead fish, no-one seemed to know.

Growing campaign to ban landowners from shooting grouse

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2016

A new campaign to ban landowners from mass shooting grouse on sporting estates was backed by over 10,000 people last week, including TV naturalists, conservationists and animal welfare groups.

The move comes in the wake of mounting concern about the illegal poisoning or shooting of birds of prey, and large-scale culls of mountain hares. Raptors and hares are killed in order to protect grouse so that there are more available to be shot for sport.

A petition calling on the UK government to ban driven grouse shooting, which can kill thousands of birds a day, was launched last Sunday. By late Friday it had gathered over 10,800 signatures, enough to ensure that the government must respond.

One of the first to sign was Chris Packham, a presenter of the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumwatch and Winterwatch programmes. “Real conservationists have run out of patience with the illegal persecution of raptors and the continued abuse of our uplands which are drained, burned and denuded of life,” he said.

“We want the law to be upheld and sustainable management implemented, that’s all, and in a reasonable world that wouldn’t be a big ask.”

Supermarket under fire over farmed salmon

from Sunday Herald, 27 March 2016

Sainsbury’s has been accused of breaking a promise not to sell salmon from farms infested with lice in breach of guideline limits.

The angling group, Salmon and Trout Conservation Scotland (S&TCS), has attacked the supermarket chain for continuing to market caged salmon from the north west coast of Scotland that could harm wild fish.

Salmon farms have long had a problem with sea lice, tiny natural parasites that eat fish alive. Lice can multiply in cages holding many thousands of salmon, and then spread to passing wild young salmon and sea trout and kill them.

S&TCS complained a year ago that Sainsbury’s salmon came from fish farms that failed to meet industry guidelines on lice infestation. The group was then assured by company managers that the problem was being dealt with, and lice infestations would end.

But S&TCS says that lice levels on salmon farms at Loch Duich, Loch Alsh and Ardintoul near the Isle of Skye breached the industry’s good practice code in the last three months of 2015. In December average levels reached nearly seven adult female lice per fish, compared to a recommended threshold of one.

Queen’s estate accused of mass killing mountain hares

from Sunday Herald, 20 March 2016

The Queen has been urged to step in and stop her estate in Scotland from killing hundreds of mountain hares in the wake of new evidence of mass culls in the Cairngorms.

Delnadamph, which is part of Her Majesty’s Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, has been accused of working with neighbouring estates to shoot large numbers of hares. Two culls involving three estates were witnessed towards the end of February, one of which was said to have killed 500 hares.

The allegations have been made by the veteran Cairngorm scientist, Dr Adam Watson, who says he has reliable accounts from eyewitnesses and other informed sources. The two alleged culls are in addition to the mass killing suggested by a photograph of a pickup truck full of dead hares on the Lecht published by The Ferret and others.

“In each case, a brutal military-type operation occurred, with scores of quad bikes and snow scooters driving the hares up to armed staff hidden higher up, and frequent bangs from guns,” Watson said.

“These severe killings show no respect for the public or for wildlife under stress during snowy weather.”

Landowners insist that shooting hares is perfectly legal, and doesn’t jeopardise their populations. But Watson argues that mass killings are in breach of European law because they are indiscriminate and damage the animals’ conservation status.

Westminster blunder deprives Scotland of anti-litter laws

from Sunday Herald, 20 March 2016

Westminster has admitted mistakenly depriving Scottish councils of powers to force businesses to clean up litter, the Sunday Herald can reveal.

The Home Office in London has confessed it made a legislative “error” when it repealed sections of an environmental protection act without realising that they applied to Scotland.

As a result local authorities north of the border no longer have legal authority to issue notices requiring companies to install rubbish bins and take other measures to prevent littering. They also can’t order public bodies to clean up their land.

The Scottish environment minister, Richard Lochhead, has accused UK ministers of having “a rubbish attitude towards Scotland’s rubbish”. He is writing to the Home Office minister, Mike Penning, demanding “urgent action” to rectify the blunder.

“Laws over litter and the environment are rightly devolved to the Scottish Parliament but the Tories at Westminster have gone ahead and repealed them without even informing the Scottish Parliament,” said Lochhead.

“It’s now over fifteen years since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, but that news doesn’t seem to have reached some parts of Whitehall yet. I am asking the UK government to reinstate the provisions they repealed – and what measures they are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

The Home Office’s mistake was made when it was repealing sections 92-94A of the 1990 Environmental Protection Act so they could be replaced by new powers in the 2014 Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act.

Precious bay will be damaged by dredging, warn wildlife groups

from Sunday Herald, 13 March 2016

A government move to allow scallop dredging in one of Scotland’s most precious bays will wreck the seabed, damage wildlife and could be illegal, environmental groups have warned.

Scottish ministers have agreed to allow fishing boats to dredge almost a third of Luce Bay on the far southwestern tip of Galloway for four months every year. The bay is legally protected as a conservation area because of its endangered purple-pink maerl beds, brittlestars and hundreds of other marine species.

A coalition of seven major conservation groups have joined with an angling network to protest to the government’s Marine Scotland directorate over a decision to permit scallop dredging in the Luce Bay and Sands Special Area of Conservation (SAC) on the edge of the Solway Firth.

In a joint letter, they expressed concern that the government’s approach will result in the natural features special to the bay being harmed. “Fisheries management measures for Luce Bay will expose areas of seabed to potential damage by scallop dredging at certain times of year,” they wrote.

They questioned whether the government’s scientific evidence was sufficient to ensure that no damage would occur. There was evidence of an underwater reef – a potentially rich habitat for marine wildlife - to the west of the bay that could be at risk, they said.

Cairngorm music festival must protect birds to win licence

from Sunday Herald, 06 March 2016

An electronic music festival planned for next weekend in the middle of an ancient Caledonian pine forest in the Cairngorms has still to be granted a licence because of concerns it could harm rare birds.

Over 500 tickets for ‘Groove Cairngorm’ at Badaguish in Glenmore forest at the foot of the Cairngorm ski slope have already been sold. But Highland Council is still considering how to protect the forest’s capercaillie, one of Scotland’s most endangered species, from the traffic, noise and crowds.

Two government bodies – Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which is meant to protect wildlife, and the Forestry Commission, which manages the woodland – are worried that the event could prevent the birds breeding unless major measures are taken to protect them.

SNH has advised the council that the noise should be kept below 75 decibels, and that sound barriers will be required around the concert site. It also wants to prevent concert-goers from leaving the site, and lights from being shone into the woods.

The Forestry Commission said it was concerned about the event taking place near places where capercaillie perform their distinctive mating dances, known as leks.

Environmental groups have warned that disturbing capercaillie would be illegal, with one suggesting the event should be refused a licence. The festival’s organisers, however, insist that the event will be able to go ahead without the birds being harmed.

Upgrade to Trident targeting prompts fears of US control

from Sunday Herald, 28 February 2016

A major upgrade of a top-secret system for targeting Trident warheads has sparked fears that UK nuclear weapons are effectively under the control of the US.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has completed an eight-year overhaul of the high-security computer software used to determine which cities and military facilities across the world would be hit by nuclear bombs in the event of war. Details of the upgrade are “classified”.

Critics claim that the UK system is critically dependent on US software, and that it’s the US president who is really in command. But this is denied by the MoD, which insists that that the targeting system is “one of the sovereign components” of the nuclear deterrent.

An unpublicised article in an MoD technical journal in December 2015 disclosed that scientists and engineers had been thanked for bringing Trident’s targeting system into “a new era”. The upgrade project had required “zero tolerance of failure” and encountered “considerable challenges”, it said.

“This represents the culmination of eight years of design, development, production and test effort that comprises over 3.5 million lines of software code and in excess of 300,000 man-hours.”

Work was co-ordinated by the MoD’s strategic weapons project team based at the “UK Software Facility (UKSF)”. The MoD refused to say where this facility is located, but it is believed to be in a bunker hidden under a grass mound behind barbed wire near the town of Corsham in Wiltshire.

Row over Westminster bid to vet Holyrood human rights letters

from Sunday Herald, 28 February 2016

The Foreign Office in Westminster is demanding to vet Scottish Government dealings with other countries on human rights, according to correspondence seen by the Sunday Herald.

The UK foreign minister, James Duddridge, has asked the Scottish international development minister, Humza Yousaf, to clear all his letters to foreign governments before raising concerns about human rights infringements and other matters.

The move has infuriated Yousaf. “It beggars belief that the Tories – who are in the midst of scrapping the Human Rights Act – want to vet the Scottish Government’s letters raising human rights concerns abroad,” he said.

“I am proud of the SNP raising concerns about human rights without fear or favour – and certainly will take no lessons from the Tories on this,” he added.

“Whilst we are happy to share correspondence with Westminster, as we have done to date as a matter of courtesy, we certainly will not be asking or seeking permission before raising legitimate concerns about human rights.”

Row over removal of radiation warnings from nuclear convoys

from Sunday Herald, 21 February 2016

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has come under fierce fire for removing radiation warning signs from the nuclear convoys that regularly trundle Scotland’s roads.

The well-known trefoil symbol indicating hazardous radioactivity is no longer used on lorries transporting plutonium or highly enriched uranium for bombs. According to the MoD, this is so it can maintain its policy “to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons.”

The move has been fiercely criticised by SNP and Labour politicians for endangering the public and emergency services. Campaigners say the MoD is putting secrecy ahead of public safety.

In the past vehicles carrying “special nuclear materials” such as plutonium and uranium displayed the warning signs, though those carrying nuclear weapons did not. But following a decision to use the same vehicles for both kinds of shipments, the MoD dispensed with all radiation symbols in 2012.

The change was only revealed in a parliamentary answer earlier this month from the defence minister Penny Mordaunt to the SNP MP for Midlothian, Owen Thompson. “This beggars belief,” he told the Sunday Herald.

“If the UK government really thinks it is better for people not to know nuclear material is being driven on motorways and through city centres to feed their nuclear obsession, it is simply untenable.”

Astute submarines plagued by 69 safety incidents over four years

from Sunday Herald, 21 February 2016

The Royal Navy’s new nuclear-powered submarines have been plagued by 69 safety incidents and “near misses” over the last four years, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has disclosed.

The Astute class of submarines based at Faslane on the Clyde has seen reported reactor incidents at sea or on shore almost double from 12 in 2014 to 21 in 2015. Though the MoD insists that the incidents are all minor, critics warn that they undermine the boats’ reliability and safety.

The first submarine of the class, HMS Astute, has already been out on operations, and the second, HMS Ambush, was launched in 2011. The third, HMS Artful, was formally handed over the Royal Navy in December 2015.

The four remaining Astute submarines are either still being built by the defence firm BAE Systems at its Barrow shipyard, or are due to be built there. The construction programme has been subject to a series of delays and cost overruns.

The MoD revealed the number of safety events recorded with Astute submarine reactors between January 2012 and January 2016 in response to a request under freedom of information law. There were an average of more than 17 a year, or one every three weeks (see table below).

SNP MPs defy Sturgeon on divesting from fossil fuel firms

from Sunday Herald, 14 February 2016

A dozen SNP MPs have backed a Green motion urging the Westminster parliament to withdraw its multi-million pound pension funds from fossil fuel companies to help tackle climate pollution.

This is despite a recent statement by the SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, suggesting that she is opposed to the growing global movement to pull investments worth some £2.3 trillion from coal, oil and gas companies.

More that 50 protests are being staged across the UK this weekend aimed at persuading more universities, councils and banks to withdraw money from climate polluters. In Scotland, the University of Glasgow and the United Reform Church are among those who have already decided to divest.

The House of Commons motion was lodged last September by the sole Green MP, Caroline Lucas. Some £500 million is invested into UK and global economies by Westminster’s pension fund, though fund mangers have so far refused to say how much of that is in fossil fuels.

The motion argues that because climate change poses a “serious risk” to financial returns, universities, churches and institutions are increasingly deciding to withdraw their funds from polluters.

Shooting estates take SNH to court on bird of prey claims

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Two sporting estates are taking the government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), to court after it said that birds of prey had been illegally killed or trapped on their land.

Last week SNH named Raeshaw estate, south east of Edinburgh, and Burnfoot estate, west of Stirling, as sites where raptors protected under law such as peregrines, red kites and buzzards had been persecuted.

Based on evidence from Police Scotland, SNH rejected appeals from the two estates, and took the unprecedented step of imposing legal restrictions on the management of their grouse moors.

The Sunday Herald has learnt, however, that the estates are now launching a judicial review of SNH’s move. They deny any wrongdoing, and are challenging whether SNH has acted lawfully within its powers.

The fierce legal battle is the latest twist in the long and bitter war over birds of prey on sporting estates. The birds are known to prey on grouse, which some landowners fear could reduce the numbers available to be shot for sport.

Hen harriers exterminated in northeast Scotland, says study

from Sunday Herald, 07 February 2016

Hen harriers have been virtually wiped out by sporting estates across northeast Scotland, according to a new scientific study.

The number of breeding pairs in the Cairngorms National Park, Aberdeenshire and East Moray has plummeted from 28 in the 1990s to just one in 2014 because of “illegal persecution and grouse management practices”, nine experts from the Northeast Scotland Raptor Study Group have concluded.

Their conclusions are backed by wildlife campaigners, who are demanding tougher action by Scottish ministers to crack down on offending landowners. But the study has been attacked by a landowning group as a selective attempt “to besmirch grouse moor management.”

The study, published in the journal British Birds, identified 118 possible breeding areas for hen harriers in northeast Scotland. “The vast majority were on moorland managed for red grouse sport shooting,” it said.

“Peak numbers of at least 28 breeding pairs in the 1990s declined steadily to just three pairs in 2010–12, five in 2013 and one in 2014. Illegal persecution and grouse-management practices are believed to be the main causes of that decline, which occurred despite ample suitable habitat and prey.”

New bid to ban pesticides toxic to bees

from Sunday Herald, 7 February 2016

Toxic pesticides blamed for harming bees are still being used across large swathes of farmland in Scotland, according to the latest government monitoring.

Farmers have treated potatoes, wheat, barley and oats on more than 22,000 hectares of land with the three most dangerous nicotine-based chemicals known as neonicotinoids.

The revelation has prompted wildlife groups to step up their campaign for Scottish ministers to ban the pesticides permanently to protect bees. But farmers say this could be “premature and damaging”.

The European Union (EU) restricted the use of three neonicotinoids in December 2013, and is now considering whether to end or extend the restrictions. They were clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

But the restrictions do not prevent the three chemicals from being used on crops that don’t attract bees and other pollinators. In Scotland, this has allowed their continued use on potatoes, wheat, barley and oats.

The latest figures from the Scottish Government’s Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture show that the three pesticides were applied to crops covering 22,442 hectares of farmland in 2014. That included 11,477 hectares of winter wheat, 5,910 hectares of winter barley, 4,379 hectares of potatoes and 676 hectares of spring oats.

Anti-Trump campaigner threatened with violence

from Sunday Herald, 17 January 2016

Police in Scotland are investigating a threat of physical violence against a campaigner who is battling the American hard right in her bid to ban Donald Trump from the UK.

Suzanne Kelly, a 54-year-old New Yorker who has made her home in Aberdeen, has complained to Police Scotland about an email warning her not to leave the UK and suggesting that she could end up picking cotton.

Kelly started a petition calling on the UK government to bar Trump, the front-runner to be the Republican Party’s candidate for US president, from entering the UK. It has been signed by over 574,000 people, and is due to be debated by the UK parliament on 18 January.

Last week Kelly went on The O’Reilly Factor, a widely-watched Fox News talk show hosted by the tough-talking right-wing pundit, Bill O’Reilly. “He didn’t eviscerate me, which was good,” Kelly said.

“He’s a staunch conservative showman who got more than a bit of an aggressive twist to him. Clearly O’Reilly and Trump have a bit of bromance going on.”

For the four minutes she was on air Kelly was allowed to speak for just 1 minute and 15 seconds, with O’Reilly talking for the remaining 2 minutes 45 seconds. It looked like more of a harangue than an interview.

While insisting that he didn’t agree with all of Trump’s comments, O’Reilly highlighted problems allegedly caused by Mexican immigrants in the US and Muslim refugees in Europe. He said it was wrong of Kelly to accuse Trump of “hate speech” and try to have him banned.