The front page article in the July edition of Comment raises a number of interesting questions regarding the future of Highland Perthshire if it becomes squeezed between two expanding National Parks. 

 http://www.commentonline.co.uk/general/SandwichedParksPressureHighlandPerthshire.htm

The well publicised southward expansion of the Cairngorms Park to Blair Atholl appears to have significant local support and in many ways this is a natural geographical boundary. The possible expansion of the Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park (LLTNP) to include Loch Tay is a more recent phenonomen.

P Fisher

Will the new community campus fall within the boundary of the forthcoming and long overdue street alcohol ban to avoid a new hangout venue for drunks being unwittingly created? It is essential that it be included to avoid it becoming a haven for those legally dispersed from the Square.

Former Pupil
 Does anybody know whether the new Community campus will make provision for visiting coach tours by way of manned public toilets? This would surely address an issue of great concern successfully where the respective councils have failed the community.

Mrs Hall

I can see both sides to the argument with regards to the Etape race. Our roads were closed for most of the day, but hey, I took our children down to watch it at both the start and finish and they had a great time. We have several family members who are looking forward to staying in the area of both Aberfeldy and Pitlochry to watch the event this year. Surley local business people could actually turn this event into a positive not a negative? I for one have made the decision, having never entered into such an event in my life, to have a go this year - if it actually happens, and my target is two things - to raise a whole heap of cash for local charities and to acheive something quite amazing for myself. Why oh why cant people get a grip on reality and recogise that its one day - one day out of 365 days of the year, why not make something of it?”

Ben Henderson

Kevin Stewart, the event organiser, has emailed me to say what Etape Caledonia (EC) will do to address the potential impact on my business. He has offered to list my establishment on the Etape website.

In addition, Etape Caledonia is “looking to establish RANNOCH as a spectator area, because friends and family would have the opportunity to see cyclists on the route and still have time to get to the finish line” and examining “the logistics of providing transportation from Rannoch to Pitlochry for those without vehicles”. The company believes this will provide “an extra incentive to take accommodation in the area“.

I have responded to Mr Stewart as follows:

I have no problem marketing my business and obtaining weekend bookings in the May to September period.

These bookings are typically for 2 and 3 night DB&B stays, with associated sales of wines and other refreshments.

I lost a large party booking over the weekend of the 2007 event as a direct consequence of the road closures. (Group visits by guests to House of Bruar, Blair Castle, Edradour and Aberfeldy distilleries, the Crannog Centre and other locations were also lost).

The single night B & B stays (typical of one-day ‘eventers’ and supporters) which may be generated by future events will not compensate for displaced multi-night DB&B bookings - I require approximately 90 B&B bookings to make up for the lost trade in June 2007, which cut that month’s income by at least 28.2%.

As I have already made clear, the May trade is better than June, and the shift of the event to May merely increases the potential loss of business.

Running this event in the future on closed roads will simply mean continuing cumulative losses for businesses lying along the route and those off route but effectively isolated by the road closures. This is NOT opinion and guesswork, this is based on common sense, experience and the demonstrable and calculable effects of the June 2007 event.

Support for this contention is evidenced by the almost unqualified support for a continuation of the event with road closures by Pitlochry-based interests unaffected by road closures, and the strong opposition to road closures found outside Pitlochry.

I find this polarisation of the Highland Perthshire community to be the saddest and most undesirable aspect of the entire issue and of itself an excellent reason for telling Etape Caledonia to ‘pedal off’.

To pre-empt any response that more visitors will be attracted to the area at other times I point out that this IS unfounded opinion and guesswork. Further, neither myself nor any other business I have contacted believes that any increase which might result, will compensate for the business displaced. My own enquiries of other businesses have uncovered not a single case to date of anyone returning to the area as a result of being here in connection with the June event.

May I suggest that you consider the following. Etape events run over similar distances on open roads attract up to 800 participants - your event had 881 participants. The support and marshalling requirement for these open road events must be insignificant in both manpower and costs in comparison to a closed road event (the marshalling being done by volunteers ?) Why not run 2 or 3 open road events over the summer with a limited entry of 800 to 900 ? (I’ll do the marshalling for you and provide First Aid cover ‘gratis’ at the East end of the southern Loch Rannoch road).

May I make it clear that I have no personal issue with you, nor do I condemn you for your pursuit of profit. Culpable is the council’s Economic Development Unit, which, displaying the business sense of an intellectually challenged gerbil, too readily bought into this closed road event while working from inadequate and inaccurate information and without properly or professionally researching the consequences.

Even more culpable are the councillors who approved the event and its road closures and let EDU play with real (public) money in support of it.

A Highland Perthshire transport manager has contacted Comment urgently to post a warning about B898 traffic developments.  He reports that increasing numbers of Yuille & Dodds heavy lorries are avoiding the Ballinluig roadworks on the A9 by taking the back route through Dalguise/Balnaguard. 

Many of the drivers have been identified as workers from the EU and are unfamiliar with the back routes and have already been the cause of a number of near misses and even private cars being forced to run off the road. 

 As single decker and mini bus vehicles on the school run also follow this route, there is growing concern that an accident is waiting to happen.  The authorities must take urgent account of these developments and consider warning signage improvements or possible vehicle size/width restrictions. 

Recent Comment articles on the state of salmon fishing on the Tay have been creating interest locally, with numbers of people agreeing with the picture that is being portrayed. The national Press has now picked up on the story and has started running with it from the weekend of 18 November.

Clearly, with the Tay being such

   an iconic feature of Highland Perthshire,

   a valuable corridor for local wildlife and

   a focal point for recreation and economic activity,

we all locally have an obvious interest in how well or how badly it fares.

Lobbying

Local fishermen are currently lobbying the Tay District Salmon Fisheries Board (TDSFB) to introduce a 100% catch-and-release (C & R) policy, which, if implemented could mean up to 6,000 extra fish surviving to spawn each year.  This, on top of habitat works and other potential measures, would allow a more rapid recovery of stocks.

Comment has learned that an internet poll of local fishermen and ghillies debating this subject is currently showing 74% of people in favour of such a move. It is also understood that the Cargill beat near Stanley has now announced that it will now adopt such a policy for the spring of 2008, and this may now encourage others to follow.

Therefore people locallyare encouraged to take an interest in this subject, to make their views known and to vote in this poll and put pressure on TDSFB to implement such a policy, which has been shown to deliver dramatic improvements to other rivers - such as the Aberdeenshire Dee.

Congratulations go to the head ghillie at Cargill, Dave Godfrey, and to his employer for taking such a decisive, brave and forward-looking action on C & R at this time.  Given the importance of this river to our Highland Perthshire community, other riparian owners are warmly urged to do likewise.

Poll Your Views

The poll on C & R can be found at www.salmonfishingforum.com/forums/ . This is a very well run, professional site, the discussion of the issues is extremely articulate, sometimes humorous, very enlightening. Visitors need to take a just a few minutes to register. The site will NOT make them liable to receivie unwanted messages, and there is no cost involved.

Once registered with a user name and password, visitors just scroll down to River Tay in the rivers section. The poll is a simple “Yes” or “No”, and encouragement is given to leave a message, although this is not essential.

Is All OK on the Tay?

Given that those professionally involved with the River Tay are so evidently worried about their future, this is a campaign which is most worthy of wider, local support.

As always, contributions on this subject are warmly welcomed.

I can’t possibly be the only parent in Highland Perthshire that is concerned about the problems at Breadalbane Academy.  I am hearing daily from my own children and from friends, of various problems with staff morale, problems with discipline with students being excluded, fighting between students in Victoria Park at lunch-times, shortage of teachers as absences are on the rise due to stress and all this with prelims due to start soon and the new build underway.   

Is it my imagination or does this all seem to have come about since the Rector, John Low was seconded to Perth Grammar.  I haven’t met the new Head Teacher Linda Swan, and understand she cannot be seen around Aberfeldy at lunch-times in the way that you used to see John Low, checking up on the students, being seen as a presence in the town.

Now I hear Doreen Redfern is leaving at Christmas, she is off to pastures new in Monifieth.  So we are losing a Deputy Head as well as the head of Maths.  What next.  Am I alone in thinking that Breadalbane is in crisis?  

There is a meeting of the Parents’ Council at Breadalbane on the 27th November at 6.30pm, in the school library.  I am going along to have my say and I would urge all parents to attend.

A Worried Dad