Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Stuc a' Chroin and Ben Vorich

Tuesday 31 May 2011

Moy Estate raid update and Skibo Castle Estate worker fined

Moy Estate - see post of 4 June 2010 'Moy Estate raided'.

When police raided the estate last June they found an estate worker with a dead red kite which, he said, he'd found in a trap set for stoats and weasels. The bird had not been poisoned but the worker had put the bird a Land Rover and did not tell his manager, the RSPB or police. The former apprentice gamekeeper has been fined £1500 at Inverness Sheriff Court.

Also at Inverness Sheriff court this week, an estate worker at the exclusive Skibo Castle estate has been fined £3300 for possession of the banned insecticide Carbofuran. He had 10kg, enough to "wipe out the entire Scottish golden eagle and red kite populations several times over" according to the RSPB. It was accepted that the worker had no part in the deaths of two golden eagles and a sparrow hawk found on the estate in May 2010, otherwise the Sheriff would have imprisoned him.

Neither Moy nor Skibo Estates appear to have been held accountable for the actions of their employees. At least I can find no reports saying so.

What with landowners in the Highlands queuing up to allow wind power station developments and reports such as the above, it is all very depressing.

Source: BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter Steven McKenzie

Monday 30 May 2011

Wind Prospect plans Burnfoot Wind Power Station extension.


Wind Prospect's Plans.
Blue area - Clackmannanshire, Green - Perth and Kinross.
Black dots - current turbines.



















Wind Prospect which built the 13-turbine Burnfoot Wind Power Station now wish to apply to build another 22 turbines as shown on the above map. If granted, they have 'promised' that they will not submit any future applications for turbines 'in the immediate area'. How good of them.

Burnfoot should never have been approved and Wind Prospect have clearly adopted the now common strategy of obtaining approval for a relatively small number of turbines then applying for extensions at a later date.

If this new development is approved, the Ochils are really on their way to becoming one big wind power station.

Sunday 29 May 2011

Some local storm damage

























This all seems peculiarly out of tune with the lush green of late spring.

Sunday 1 May 2011

The Angry Corrie online

Anyone know if TAC is still published? It seems to stop at 2008 online.