Forestry and Land Scotland
Argyll and Bute Council · 1 February 2023
Back to Mid Argyll, Kintyre and the Islands Area Community Planning Group — 1 February 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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1 | FLS/MAKI update | Jeni West | January 2023 Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) update January 2023 Land Management Plans (LMPs) Beinn Ghuilean LMP revision in progress. Public consultation event occurred end 2022. Carradale Awaiting approval from Scottish Forestry, came off public register end December 2022. South Knapdale Public consultation event held December 2022. LMP be on hold due to staff changes. Torran, Ford Public consultation event held autumn 2022. Woodland creation proposals due to be submitted to Scottish Forestry spring 2023. Renewables Tangy 4 (Lussa) Planning permission for the windfarm has been granted for some time. Update to the detailed proposals are needed and some redesign to try and work around the peatland on FLS ground. The windfarm site is split between FLS and private ground. On-going discussions regarding peatland restoration. Larch- Phytophthora ramorum There is still significant spread of this disease in Kintyre and mid Argyll areas, some of this with the more aggressive EU2 strain. Felling work is targeting and priortising felling of larch areas over the next 5 to 10 years to try and limit spread and make use of larch timber before it gets infected. Work is currently underway to submit LMP wide amendments to Scottish Forestry in Ormaig and West Loch Awe to target larch removal to help prevent the spread North.
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2 | FLS/MAKI update | Jeni West | January 2023 Peatland restoration Surveying land and identifying areas before schedule of works and contracts issued; Lussa, Ormaig and West Loch Awe have approved restoration areas. Upcoming “complex” operations Beinn Ghuilean felling Liaison with community council and neighbours. Felling to hopefully commence in early spring- civils operations followed by harvesting operations. Other information Drainage works and culvert repair on the old Rhonadale road to alleviate water ingress into church grounds to commence asap. Forestry and Land Scotland car parking charges- see statement below
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3 | FLS/MAKI update | Jeni West | January 2023 Car Parking Charges – Statement FLS is a public body and we are unusually a largely self-funding one. FLS has been working towards a financially sustainable position for a number of years as core Scottish Government funding comes under increasing pressure. We must ensure that we continue to deliver our objectives across social, environmental and economic work streams in the event that funding is reduced or removed. Car parking charges are an important tool to help fund our work. FLS takes its responsibility to offer visitor experiences to the public very seriously and we target considerable resources towards the maintenance and improvement programmes. The monies raised through car parking charges will be utilised to this end. Car park charges have been implemented in the north of the region for around a year and are currently contributing to the financial sustainability of the visitor offer. FLS will be installing a pay by phone system of payment at the following sites via our provider RingGo who are the biggest and most well-known provider in the UK with many people already holding an account. Achnabreac Ardcastle Aros Park Ballochgair Barnluasgan Bridge of Orchy (Late 2023) Catnish Car Park (Glen Orchy) Dunardry (post felling) Eas Urchaidh Car Park (Glen Orchy) Fearnoch Glen Lochy Glen Nant Grianan (Carradale) Port Na Storm (Carradale) Strone Hill Sutherland's Grove For those who don’t like to use an app or website, there will be a dedicated free phone number for an automated service or 24/7 staffed call center and at our sites with marginal or poor signal there will be the ability to pay within a certain period after their visit via a mobile or landline. The service is pay as you go so FLS are only charged per visitor payment.
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4 | FLS/MAKI update | Jeni West | January 2023 Our Rangers and other staff who are already visiting sites for other duties undertake the vehicle payment checks and our admin teams already undertake the admin for other charged sites so there will be little extra expenditure for FLS other than the mandatory charge parking signage. The majority of income from parking will go directly back to raising site maintenance standards and facilities and helping FLS look after the forests and wildlife. We hope a higher quality offer will also encourage repeat visits and new visits to Argyll which helps support the wider economy of the region We recognize that nobody likes the introduction of charging, we however know from our visitor feedback that most visitors view a small charge for parking to help maintain facilities as reasonable.