Letter of objection sent to Perth & Kinross Council from Ramblers Scotland, 14th December 2005.
We are writing to express our objection to the above application to exempt the land at Balado Activity Centre from access rights for the period of two years.
We object to the application on the grounds that it would be an unreasonable reduction in statutory access rights, is unnecessary and would create undesirable precedents for the operation of statutory access rights elsewhere in Scotland. We also do not believe that the three arguments used in support of the application justify the exemptions sought.
1. Responsible access and the viability of the enterprise
While there are clearly events where we would not expect statutory access rights to be exercised, such as at T in the Park, it seems to us to be excessive to consider exempting the entire area throughout the year. Such an approach would set a precedent which would be used by land managers throughout Scotland to undermine the basis of statutory access rights using the argument that an “event” was taking place on their land. The issues which have been mentioned in the application, such as dog fouling, broken glass and vandalism, are not issues which are relevant to a proposal to exempt land from statutory access rights. There are other statutes in place which should be used to deal with such problems, alongside appropriate education programmes.
2. The local economy
We accept that Balado is an important enterprise for the local economy and the site hosts a number of high profile events during the year, although none are on the scale of T in the Park. Nevertheless, these events have been taking place since before the access legislation came into effect, and the application provides no evidence to suggest that these events cannot now take place because of the establishment of statutory access rights. If insurance companies are suggesting that they are not able to insure such events because of statutory access rights then the answer is to make clear to these organisations that they misunderstand the basis of the access legislation.
3. Path networks and statutory access rights
The fact that no path network exists in the area is not relevant to the exercise of statutory access rights. These rights encompass land, such as grassland and woodland within the site, where people have a right to be, whether on or off a path, providing they are acting responsibly. We do not want to see any action taken at Balado that undermines the ability and ease by which people can today exercise these statutory access rights. Where there are particular activities going on within the site, which land managers believe might impinge on the exercise of statutory access rights, then the normal solution would be for the land managers to erect notices which ask people not to exercise these rights over a particular area for the specific period that the activity is underway.
In conclusion we want to emphasise that we regard this application for exemption from statutory access rights as potentially an important test for the implementation and operation of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. If it is to proceed further in its present form we would expect to raise an objection to the Scottish Ministers. We therefore suggest that you call a meeting of interested parties so that we can establish whether there are better ways forward to facilitate events at Balado, while not creating unnecessary difficulties in relation to statutory access rights. We would be pleased to participate in such a meeting.
