Issue updates

No news on the pylons yet
As yet, we have had no further news about the likely outcome of Scottish & Southern Energy's application to upgrade the Beauly to Denny power line to 14OOkV. This, as old hands will know, would result in a line of enormous pylons marching across Sheriffmuir, bisecting the historic battlefield, going right next to the parking area used by so many people to access Dumyat and the Cocksburn Reservoir, and down the southern Ochils scarp through Yelowcraig Wood, very close to Logie Kirk and its cemeteries, and on through the carse. The report of the Public Inquiry that took up most of 2007 is still expected to be completed around the end of this year, but we now understand that it will not be made public until the Scottish Ministers have made their final decision – sometime around May to September, 2009. Legal advice is that we would have no grounds to challenge this secrecy decision.

Core paths in the Stirling area
All three Ochils councils have been working hard to draw up plans to designate certain paths as 'Core Paths', under the terms of the access legislation. Stirling Council is in the lead, having finalised its consultation process ahead of Clackmannanshire and Perth & Kinross. In our response to Stirling Council, the Friends reiterated our position opposing any way-marking of paths on the hills, and calling for any signposting of the starting points of paths to be minimal and appropriate. However, subject to those provisos, we indicated acceptance of the designation of the main path up Dumyat from the Sheriffmuir road, and the adjoining path along to the Cocksburn Reservoir, as Core Paths. A key factor in our decision was recognising that the Council is unlikely to fund maintenance work for any path not designated Core. We pointed out that both paths are rapidly becoming boggy in certain areas, and are increasingly in need of maintenance work.

Linking with other Ochils websites
It's been some time since we updated our website's links to the websites of other Ochils-related organisations, and there's obviously scope to extend these. There is so much of interest around the Ochils, and a number of communities and groups are working hard to provide information for the public. By providing links to their websites, we can significantly extend the scope of the information offered by our site.
The website already has links to hill walking groups, landscape-related organisations, tourist boards and local authorities, but what other opportunities are there? Relevant organisations include communities such as Dunning and Blairlogie, and historical/ archaeological groups such as that at Forteviot, and the Logie Old Kirk graveyard group. There are probably a number of others, and we would very much welcome suggestions of other Ochils-related organisations' websites. Please send ideas to Nicki Baker at 01786 833399 or
e-mail nicki@baker-pearson.net

BACK TO THE CONTENTS PAGE