In ongoing battles over Scotland’s wild places, developers only need to win once
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Somewhere in Scotland, somebody wants to build something in an area of wild land in order to make some cash. A planning application is submitted, word gets out, and environmental charities and concerned locals start a campaign to save said wilderness area from being destroyed. After much lobbying, the environmentalists are successful, planning permission is denied and all those involved breathe a huge sigh of relief. But then, once the dust has settled, the developers decide to have another go and the whole exhausting process starts all over again. In order for wild land to remain wild, the environmentalists have to win every single battle, but the developers only have to win once.
Long- suffering readers of Final Words may remember the case of the Stronelairg windfarm in the Monadhliath mountains. The Scottish Government granted permission for the 67- turbine development to go ahead in 2014, but then in 2015 wild land charity the John Muir Trust managed to get the decision overturned in a judicial review. Stuart Brooks, the JMT’S chief executive, described this second ruling as “great news for all those who love Scotland’s wild land and wish to see it protected” and pointed out that the legal challenge had only been possible thanks to the financial support of “over a thousand wellwishers.” By 2016, however, the 2015 decision had itself been overturned and the “industrial scale” windfarm was on its way to being built. Those thousand- plus well- wishers who had donated their hard- earned cash to the JMT were probably left wondering why they’d bothered.
Fast- forward to the start of this week, and it was impossible not to be reminded of the back- and- forth over Stronelairg when a new plan was submitted for a golf course at Coul Links near Embo in Sutherland
– a delicate dune ecosystem full of rare wildlife which is protected by national, European and international nature designations. In February, a broad coalition of environmental charities ( Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust) along with local group Not Coul appeared to have won a notable victory when a plan by American developers Mike Keiser and Todd Warnock to make Coul part of an 18- hole golf course was refused by the Scottish Government. Now, however, a new application has been made for the development of
“an 18 hole championship links golf course and practise area” covering 805 acres, this time in the name of the Embo Junior Football and Athletic Club. How a junior football club has the wherewithal to develop an 805 acre golf course is beyond Final Words – presumably shirt sponsorship deals have come a long way in the North West Sutherland League – but whoever is supplying the cash for this new bid, it sounds awfae similar to the old bid. Bruce Wilson, public affairs manager of the Scottish Wildlife Trust, called for the plans to be refused “at the earliest opportunity” and added “it’s astonishing that this application has come back in largely the same form.”
In The Scotsman on Monday there was fighting talk from Dr Tom Dargie of Not Coul, the local campaign group set up to protect Coul Links, who said, “We led a very effective campaign over a three- year period and we will fight it again, as effectively as before.” History, however ( see Stronelairg, above) suggests that where big bucks are involved, it might just be a matter time before the bulldozers roll in. And with the economy on its knees thanks to Covid- 19, the Scottish Government will be under more pressure than ever to attract overseas investment. This latest bid might be unsuccessful, but what about the next one, or the one after that? Money can afford to bide its time.
It’s unfortunate for the environmental lobby that none of the species currently resident at Coul are particularly media- friendly. If they had a pair of nesting ospreys to put on posters, or a family of Scottish Wildcats, they’d be laughing. Still, Coul does boast some very rare residents – insects like the small blue butterfly and plants like the coral root orchid. And in terms of rarity, Coul’s scarcest resident, Fonseca’s seed fly, is an international superstar. First found at Dornoch Sands in 1965 and officially named and declared new to science in 1989, the only place these tiny creatures are to be found on the entire planet is in the eight kilometre stretch of coast between Dornoch Point and Coul Links. This puts them in the second most endangered category in the Red List for Endangered Animals compiled by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, making them more endangered than such charismatic megafauna as giant pandas, snow leopards and white rhinos. Yeah, OK, it’s only a fly, but it’s Scotland’s fly. We’re not going to allow it to be wiped out on our watch, are we?
In terms of rarity, Coul’scarcest resident, Fonseca’s seed fly, is an international superstar