Scottish Power failure
Dear Editor It is with great disappointment, but not surprise, that I have heard about the controversy regarding the footpaths on Dumyat.
Two months ago I retired to Keswick in the Lake District but prior to that I lived in a cottage visible from the Dumyat path for over 20 years and was a regular, often daily, walker up Dumyat. So it is an area that I know extremely well and love.
During that time, I was secretary of Stirling Before Pylons, a community member of Stirling Council’s BeaulyDenny working group and most recently the council’s Beauly-Denny legacy group.
It seems to me that all the official parties to this process have been negligent and not dealt with the matter professionally enough. Some examples include :
* The Energy Consents Unit of the Scottish Government appointed consultants, Ironside Farrer, with no inhouse knowledge of hill path restoration, although the Government knew this work was a requirement as part of the permission they had given consultation meetings with Friends of the Ochils and myself. At these meetings we stated that these proposals would be sensitive to the wishes of the community and that wider consultation was required but they decided not to pursue this.
We also stated that their plans were over-engineered and not appropriate for the landscape setting and scale of Dumyat. In our view a more sensitive and complete solution to the erosion caused by walkers and mountain bikers was required.
They wrote saying they didn’t accept our views and that they were proposing to proceed with their plans which have led to the current complaints.
I visited Stirling last week and was fortunate enough to meet the contractor’s site manager who was on Dumyat at the time. He gave me a thorough explanation of the works he was carrying out. This was the first time in all the meetings over several years regarding this project that I felt I was talking to someone who understood the issues associated with upland paths and how they can implemented.
Following this discussion I have some confidence that if his revised proposals are implemented we could see a satisfactory solution on Dumyat. This should involve consultation with the community and experts in the field.
My own feeling all along has been that a satisfactory solution would be more expensive than budgeted and I was surprised to learn that Scottish Power have threatened to pull out of the scheme and reinstate their works to date.
That is not a realistic option given that their approval for Beauly-Denny included a condition that compensatory works would be carried out to the Dumyat path.
Nonetheless, one day we will travel again to Scotland with our two children and seeing the beauty of your country will hopefully make them understand why my husband and me love Runrig so much.
Doris Colanero and family, Switzerland