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

From 4th to 13th November a poll was run in the Forum of commentonline. During that period there were 862 views made and 28 ‘votes’ were cast on the options presented, as follows:

Should the event be repeated in 2008
Yes - May - Unconditionally - 3%  (1)
Yes - May - with conditions - 14%  (4)
No - May - 0%  (0)
Yes - October - Unconditionally - 0%  (0)
Yes - October - Conditionally - 39%  (11)
No - October - 0%  (0)
2008 - Not at all - 42%  (12)
 
Total Votes : 28

Ian Buxton writes:

Etape 2008?

Based upon the experience this June, the reactions accumulated to date, from the consultants’ economic impact report commissioned by Perth & Kinross Council and from the feedback from the Comment community survey which elicited 240 poll form returns, whilst there is widespread local opposition to the Etape, some local people do apparently believe that positive benefits might eventually accrue from a properly formulated and conducted event.

Constructive potential
The report on the meeting at Scotland’s hotel on 16 October indicated a group is forming to assist with feedback to inform the decision making about any future event. This group is urged to assume an entirely positive mindset towards a future Etape event’s potential, and to start by approaching the 2007 marathon as a pilot event.
They are pressed to consider, off the back of its expectations and performance, those elements which need to be re-evaluated and adjusted before any replication.
To achieve the best win-win outcome for all interests, they are encouraged to not rush the process - indeed to assert the default position of: “Get All Our Ducks In A Line for 2009”, and then:

• Address openly the criteria that the Economic Development Department uses to evaluate and prefer the interests of one commercial interest over another
• Explore, fully and transparently, the assertion that the Etape must be a closed-road event (the organiser’s summary report identified that only 42% of participants identified ‘the closed roads’ as its best feature this year).
• Revisit the denial of the potential of a 5/6am start for the avoidance of many of the issues arising from prolonged road closures.
• Justify why the impact of closure could NOT be massively reduced through offering closed roads for the first 20 or 50 riders only (in the light of observers’ evidence from this year’s event).
• Establish that the maximum road closure time on any section should be 2 hours.
• Indicate, unambiguously, the grounds for accepting the unsubstantiated bias of the organisers against holding the event in October prior to the Enchanted Forest, given the ‘added value’ dimension so important to cluster events.
• Re-evaluate the route and properly research a viable alternative that ameliorates the social and commercial impact upon the generality of business and community in Highland Perthshire – especially landusers.
• Avoid the accusation that the organisers have yet again pressed for an early date deliberately to compromise the undertaking of proper consultation by the local authority before their marketing imperative closes down the opportunity for this.

Obstructive potential
A significant number of civically aware Highland Perthshire residents, second-home/timeshare owners and democratically-minded regular visitors are deeply concerned over the handling of 2007 Etape event. Little that has subsequently happened has provided confidence that the shameful process is not already being repeated.

Evidence for this lies in:
• the Ekos Economic Impact report being completed in August, yet not made public nor even partially aired until a closed meeting on 16 October - and the open “Comment” poll being entirely ignored and written out of the official story!
• the process of ‘seeking a consensus’ has been left to the promoters arbitrarily to explore and – in spite of their spectacular failure of communication during 2007 - is not being properly conducted or supervised by the local authority;
• the total unwillingness of the organisers to compromise with regard to an Autumn date, the event start time, the route, the duration of compulsory road closures or the issue of compensation;
• the pressure exerted for a show of hands, at a closed meeting, (consisting of merely a small, partial and skewed commercial and community attendance) on a proposed date and logistic for a repeat 2008 event.

In the view of this group, the “fix is already in” (as American gangsters are wont to say).

P&K Council has publicly stated its guiding principles to be:

 Accountability and transparency:
Ensuring that we are accountable and transparent to the community, our Community Planning partners and the Scottish Executive in our decision-making, planning and delivery of services.
 Communication:
Ensuring that we communicate effectively with our employees, our Community Planning partners and the community.
 Community Involvement:
Ensuring that we engage effectively with the community, Community Planning partners and employees regarding our activities and decisions, providing opportunities for participation and feedback.
 Continuous Improvement:
Ensuring that we use Best Value principles in all our service planning and delivery decisions.
 Sustainability:
Ensuring that we consider the long-term sustainability of our decisions.

Many consider these a sick joke in the light of the Etape fiasco. However, in the light of these principles, and their blatant divergence from practice over this event so far, the intervention of the Local Authority Ombudsman is now being actively investigated on the following grounds:

 the lack of public discussion on this issue of road closure and interference with civil liberties;
 the failure to ascertain the views of the people who are most negatively affected;
 the cavalier exercise of delegated power by an unelected official;
 the degree of influence exercised by a private enterprise upon a statutory authority’s decision making over an unprecedented road closure;
 the ready use of a public resource by a private company to make profit;
 the lack of accountability and transparency demonstrated by the local authority in the whole affair.

News that salmon angling in Scotland continued to improve in 2006, has been warmly welcomed by MP Pete Wishart. However, the MP’s willingness to deploy the recently-issued statistics uncritically has angered local naturalists and anglers in Highland Perthshire. A total of 85,901 salmon and grilse were reported caught throughout 200r, with 47,471 - 55 per cent of the total catch - being released, the highest number on record. The MP said of the news: “This is excellent for the Tay salmon industry and its related links in our local economy. Although we can not be complacent, this recent upturn in salmon catches is fantastic news. Rural Job Support
“The Tay is known internationally for its salmon fishing. It is one of the best salmon rivers in our country, indeed in the whole of the EU. People come from all corners of the earth to Perthshire in order to fish.“Salmon fishing is very important to tourism and our local economy in Perth and North Perthshire as well as to the whole of Scotland, and angling supports around 2,000 jobs in rural communities. I hope that this is a trend in our salmon stocks which is set to continue and sustainability can be a key feature of angling on the River Tay”

On behalf of a member of the Sinclair family I am hoping that someone has any information about Ewen (Hugh) Sinclair who was born around 1810 at Tullicuil, in Dull.
When he migrated to Sydney, Australia, in 1837, his Indenture Papers stated that his father’s name was Duncan Henderson.
Does anyone know about this Henderson connection? It is assumed that the Father’s name was actually Duncan Henderson Sinclair.
Family legend has it that, prior to leaving Scotland, Hugh had been a Grand Master of a Masonic Lodge in Dundee.
Hugh left Sydney a few years after his arrival there, and was a pioneer of Wellington, New Zealand, where a park, Hugh Sinclair Park, is named after him.

Barry Dunford
Milton of Camserney
by Aberfeldy
PH15 2JF

HELP WANTED

Local group Move 2 Improve are looking for a volunteer to water hanging baskets for the 2008 season.
Anyone interested should contact any committee member or send an email to info@move2improve.co.uk

www.move2improve.co.uk

As a sequel to Robin Hull’s article in the September edition, this year I have been inclined to give them names other than those quoted by Robin.
That was after they
destroyed both my crops of climbing french beans (even after plastic tube protection),
devoured my carefully nurtured holly seedlings,
neatly severed the carrot tops, and
wrecked my pots of tulip bulbs!
My revenge? To recycle them via traps from which they go to feed recuperating birds of prey.

Bill Hoare
Fortingall

To Country-Loving Urbanites

This is your countryside too. Isn’t it time to give these questions some thought?Ask not what the countryside can do for you but what you can do……!

Name and address supplied to the publishers