Rural affairs correspondent Katharine Hay visits Stobo Hope, near Peebles in the Borders, to hear from a local resident group protesting against plans to plant a predominantly Sitka spruce plantation around a countryside walk named after 39 Steps author John Buchan.
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00:00Hi, my name's Catherine Hay, I'm the Rural Affairs Correspondent at the Scotsman.
00:04I'm here with David, who is part of the Stobor Hope Residence Action Group.
00:10And he's going to tell me a little bit about what they're campaigning for, for this land
00:14which you can see behind us.
00:16This has really all come about as a result of a scheme which has been given permission
00:20by Scottish Forestry, a grant that's been awarded by them for forestry, afforestation,
00:27here where we're standing.
00:28And this is an area which is particularly special because it's part of the National
00:32Scenic Area, the Upper Tweedale National Scenic Area, it's got special landscape qualities.
00:37And we're standing with the John Buchan Way that runs through this landscape just behind
00:40us.
00:42And a company has come in and put in an application for 700 hectares of predominantly spruce forest
00:50to go in here, so that's seven square kilometres.
00:53And it's nestled in between two other schemes, there's one on one side at Broughton and there's
00:59one on the other side at Harrow Hope, so there'll be a cumulative impact of 10 square kilometres
01:04of predominantly spruce conifer forestation should this scheme go ahead.
01:10In terms of where we are with it, unfortunately they've decided, Scottish Forestry that is,
01:16to give the go-ahead for the scheme without an environmental impact assessment taking
01:20place.
01:21So they've what's called screened it out, and they did that on the 18th of January.
01:25Now the Stobor Residence Action Group is trying to challenge that decision because we've been
01:30advised that there ought to have been an environmental impact assessment, and one of the reasons
01:34we think that is because we've seen the correspondence from NatureScot, which is the body charged
01:38with protecting our beautiful scenic environments, and they've said there will be significant,
01:43not that there might be, but there will be significant adverse impacts on the special
01:48landscape qualities of this area if it should go ahead.
01:52And we've also seen the landscape consultant that was employed by Scottish Forestry themselves,
01:58and that landscape consultant has also said that the scheme as currently drafted would
02:03have these impacts, but Scottish Forestry have put it through anyway, and so we're looking
02:09to challenge that in the court on the basis that an environmental impact assessment should
02:13have taken place to assess what these harmful impacts would be.
02:16And what stage are you at now with the petition?
02:19Is it a petition you've got?
02:20It's a petition on the Crown Funder website, and we've managed to raise £10,000, which
02:23is enough money to lodge the petition and to get the process started.
02:28We've been advised by our solicitors that to take it all the way up to the final hearing
02:33would take £35,000, so we've had 125 people who've already donated onto the site and given
02:39money, and we're trying to get more money to make sure we can try and hold the decision
02:44makers to account on this one, because if we can't, Catherine, if we can't protect these
02:48sorts of areas, and these are our very special, most special areas for landscape quality,
02:54if we can't protect these sorts of areas, what can we protect?
02:58We know that you've got to have different land uses for different places.
03:01In some areas, blankets, spruce, forestation might be appropriate, but here with the John
03:07Buchan Way, which is such a special route, it's so well walked, it links into what will
03:11be the destination Tweed footpath, which millions of pounds of taxpayers' money has
03:15gone into that project as well.
03:17This is somewhere where really people should be coming to enjoy the countryside, and it's
03:21not the right place for doing this sort of scheme.
03:25But at the very least, there ought to be a proper assessment of the impacts, which is
03:29what NatureScot want, and that's why we're taking the challenge.
03:33We've got these feathers which have a little blue, kind of almost indigo shine on them,
03:38which just shows that that's where grouse, they've been here, and just, I don't know
03:43how many metres do you think the road is, where there'll be big lorries driving up and
03:47down.
03:48We don't know the specifics, whether it's actually going to disturb them.
03:51We're in close proximity to the road, which has been upgraded to be able to afford large
03:57vehicles access.
03:59I've seen what the RSPB have said, and they've said that unfortunately they feel that their
04:03comments haven't been fully taken into account, and that there will be a reduction in black
04:07grouses as a result of this scheme.
04:09So that's the way the RSPB feel about it.
04:12Obviously, these things are a balance, but in those circumstances, to say there'll be
04:15no significant effects on them seems to me very odd.
04:19You've got an area that's used by golden eagles and other raptors, an area which has got peat
04:25deposits in, an area which is in the NSA, as we've said.
04:30Yes, it's right that you've got to assess these impacts, but the proper way to do that
04:36is through a proper environmental impact assessment.