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‘Key moment’ as Scottish Government considers grouse moor licensing

It’s been three months since the Government-commissioned Werritty Review on grouse moor management was published (see here) and we’ve been waiting for the Scottish Government’s official response, which is due this spring.

We did hear from Nicola Sturgeon at First Ministers Questions in December that shortening the timescale for which grouse moor licensing may be introduced was ‘a serious consideration’ (here) which was very welcome news, although not to all.  Grouse moor trustee Magnus Linklater argued in a Times opinion piece that licensing threatened gamekeepers jobs (here), although he didn’t manage to explain how being law-abiding and not killing protected birds of prey would cost a gamekeeper his employment.

[An illegally-poisoned golden eagle in the Cairngorms National Park. Photo by Dave Dick]

As a follow up to the First Minister’s comments in December, Andy Wightman MSP (Scottish Greens) recently lodged this Parliamentary question:

S5W-27631: To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comments by the First Minister on 19 December 2019 (Official Report, c. 21), what its timescale is for reconsideration of the introduction of a licensing scheme for grouse shooting.

Environment Minister Mairi Gougeon has now responded:

We are giving very careful consideration to the recommendations in the report by the Grouse Moor Management Group (the ‘Werritty Review’).

We will set out our response to the report in due course, which will cover the recommendation on introducing licensing of grouse moor businesses.

Earlier this week Duncan Orr Ewing, RSPB Scotland’s Head of Species and Land Management wrote a very good blog (here) discussing the Werritty Review’s primary recommendation that grouse moor licensing be introduced but that the review had suggested a five-year delay. He goes on to explain what options are available to the Scottish Government as they consider the Werritty Review recommendations. Well worth a read.

Duncan describes this as a ‘key moment which could help safeguard some of Scotland’s most spectacular wildlife’ if the Scottish Government chooses to finally do what it’s been threatening for years and years and introduce a grouse moor licensing scheme.

He urges members of the public to contact their MSPs and ask them to encourage the Scottish Government to make grouse shooting both legal and more sustainable through a licencing system for grouse moors.

You can find contact details for your MSPs by entering your postcode on the “Find Your MSP” tool on the Scottish Parliament website here.

For those who don’t live in Scotland please contact Scottish Ministers at scottish.ministers@gov.scot.

Angus Glens landowner loses appeal over unauthorised vehicle track

Last October an Angus Glens landowner was ordered to remove a controversial vehicle track that was visible for miles around in the Cairngorms National Park (see here).

The landowner had argued the track was to support forestry works and thus he didn’t need permission for it but campaigners had argued that the track appeared to be being used to support gamebird management and fieldsports (e.g. see here) and thus was unauthorised.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority agreed with the campaigners and issued an enforcement notice requiring the landowner to remove the track.

The landowner appealed this decision in December 2019.

[The unauthorised hilltrack in Glen Clova. Photo by Scottish Ramblers]

A couple of days ago a Scottish Government reporter agreed with the Cairngorms National Park Authority and dismissed the landowner’s appeal. She ordered the land to be restored “so far as is reasonably practicable” within one year.

Scottish Environment LINK’s Hilltracks Group, long-time campaigners on this issue, have welcomed the decision with the following press release:

CAMPAIGNERS HAIL ‘LANDMARK’ DECISION OVER UNAUTHORISED TRACK IN GLEN CLOVA

A Scottish Government reporter has today dismissed a landowner’s appeal against an order forcing the removal of a controversial vehicle track in scenic Glen Clova, Cairngorms NP.

The decision ends a long-running battle over the 1.5km track, which is visible for miles around and features spoil mounds up to 10 metres wide.

The landowner had launched an appeal in December 2019 against Cairngorms National Park Authority’s enforcement notice ordering him to remove the vehicle track, as it appears to be used to support field sports.

But today Allison Coard, a reporter appointed by Scottish Ministers, has dismissed the appeal and ordered the land to be restored “so far as is reasonably practicable” within one year.

Scottish Environment LINK Hilltracks Group, which continues to campaign for stronger public oversight of upland vehicle tracks, commended the reporter and the national park authority for their decisive action.

Helen Todd, who is Ramblers Scotland’s policy manager and co-convener of the LINK Hilltracks group, said: “This is a landmark result, and sadly one of very few examples of an authority feeling able to commit enough time and money to retrospectively tackle unauthorised tracks.

“This ugly track is scarring the landscape in this historic, protected glen – and we look forward to seeing the hillside restored within the coming year.

“All Scottish landowners should take note of today’s decision, and the expensive restoration job that the landowner will now need to carry out.”

Beryl Leatherland, of Scottish Wild Land Group and co-convener of the LINK Hilltracks group said: “The case highlights the urgent need for the Scottish Government to introduce stronger controls over vehicle tracks in our hills – to boost local democracy, improve construction standards and protect precious environments from further damage.”

The Scottish Government has made hilltracks one of the top priorities in its forthcoming review of ‘Permitted Development Rights’, which governs which types of developments can bypass the full planning permission process.

Currently, landowners simply need to tell authorities before building tracks which are said to support ‘agriculture or forestry’ – and full planning permission is generally not required. Campaigners believe these tracks are often created to support shooting activities and therefore should be subject to a planning application.

Research published in 2018 by the Scottish Environment LINK Hilltracks group found that vehicle tracks continue to expand further into Scotland’s mountain landscapes, and that weak planning processes can lead to them being badly-sited and designed.  Some tracks have even been built over the top of narrow, low-impact trails and historical routes, with little chance for the public to comment in advance.

You can view the full appeal decision and history here.

ENDS

Well done to the campaigners at Scottish Environment LINK Hilltracks Group and also to Nick Kempe who writes the campaigning Parkswatchscotland blog – well worth subscribing to for detailed and interesting commentary. Also well done to the Cairngorms National Park Authority for issuing the enforcement notice in the first place.

Revive, the coalition for grouse moor reform in Scotland also has unauthorised hilltracks in its sights and you can read more about this in Revive’s report here.

 

Hen harrier shot on grouse moor: North Yorkshire Police make an arrest

North Yorkshire Police have arrested a man in connection with the reported shooting of a hen harrier on a grouse moor near the village of Keasden.

He has been released under investigation whilst police await the results of forensic analysis.

This incident relates to the reported shooting of a male hen harrier near White Syke Hill in the Bowland AONB last October. A previous blog on this case can be read here.

This is significant progress from North Yorkshire Police, not just in this particular investigation but also more generally in the investigation of crimes against birds of prey. Regular blog readers will be well aware of the infrequency of arrests in many of these cases, sometimes due to incompetence, inexperience and/or missed opportunities, sometimes due to lack of support from senior officers, but more often than not due to a lack of witnesses and insufficient evidence to instigate a prosecution against a named individual.

This is an issue that especially affects the persecution of hen harriers. Rigorous scientific research has demonstrated the eye-watering extent of hen harrier persecution on many driven grouse moors in northern England (e.g. here); it happens so often it’s brought the English hen harrier breeding population to its knees, but when was the last time you saw a named individual in court facing prosecution for allegedly killing one?

We have long argued that the scale of illegal raptor persecution, particularly on some driven grouse moors, amounts to serious organised crime and that the people involved are skilled at removing and destroying evidence to avoid prosecution. It takes tenacity, sometimes a bit of luck, and above all, determination, to get these people anywhere near a court room, let alone to secure a conviction.

This investigation is still in the very early stages and it may not progress to a charge if the evidence doesn’t reach the required standard but for now let’s congratulate North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Crime Team for getting it this far.

If you have any information that could help this investigation please contact North Yorkshire Police on Tel 101 quoting reference number: 12190193431.

Andy Wightman successfully defends defamation case

Yesterday a judge finally threw out a defamation claim against Andy Wightman MSP and a ludicrous claim for £750,000 damages against him, made by Dr Paul O’Donoghue of Wildcat Haven Enterprises [and Wilder Britain and Lynx UK Trust], who had argued that Andy had published, with malice, defamatory material on his blog, on Twitter and on Facebook in 2015 and 2016.

Lord Clark ruled that none of Andy’s comments were defamatory and dismissed O’Donoghue’s assertion of financial loss as no evidence was provided to support the claim. This means Andy doesn’t have to pay any damages to O’Donoghue. An expenses hearing will take place in due course to establish whether O’Donoghue will have to cover Andy’s costs.

You can read the full ruling here: Opinion of Lord Clark_WHE v Wightman 2020

[Andy Wightman at a golden eagle nest site in Scotland in his role as Golden Eagle Species Champion. Photo by Ruth Tingay]

This case has been running for several years, putting Andy under enormous stress as he faced bankruptcy and thus the loss of his job had he and his legal team not been able to defend the accusations. If he hadn’t been held in such high regard by thousands of people who helped to crowdfund approx £170,000 to launch a defence, the outcome of this case would have been swift and unjust.

Here’s how Andy broke the news on Twitter after Lord Clark published his verdict:

“I’m delighted with this judgement from Lord Clark. I would like to thank my legal team of Campbell Deane and Roddy Dunlop QC for their support, diligence and hard work over the past three years. I’d also like to thank my family and colleagues at work for their support and understanding over this period.

I want to pay particular thanks to the thousands of people who generously contributed to my crowdfunder, without whom I would simply have been unable to defend myself. I have been hugely encouraged by their ongoing support.

The National Union of Journalists and Scottish PEN have also been very supportive as part of their wider campaign for defamation reform. I have maintained throughout that I did not defame the pursuer and that this action should never have been brought against me.

It is vital that Parliament modernises the law of defamation to ensure that the law provides the right balance between freedom of expression and the rights of people not to have their reputations tarnished. It is also important that the law is clear, so that writers and journalists can write confidently and provide the freedom of expression that is so important in any democracy.”

This case has attracted a lot of media attention, of course. Here are a few articles:

Holyrood Magazine: Andy Wightman wins defamation case

Times: Andy Wightman wants law reform after defamation victory

BBC: Scottish Green MSP Andy Wightman wins defamation case

Guardian: Scottish Green MSP successfully defends defamation case

STV: Green MSP Andy Wightman cleared in defamation case

Press & Journal: Green MSP Andy Wightman wins £750,000 defamation case brought against him

Scotsman: Greens MSP Andy Wightman wins £750,000 defamation case

National: Green MSP Andy Wightman wins in £750,000 defamation case

And what of Paul O’Donoghue? Well he’s featured in the current edition of Private Eye, although this time not about this case:

 

 

UPDATE 5th February 2022: Andy Wightman awarded over £170K expenses in defamation case (here)

Killing jackdaws in Strathbraan: another SNH licensing fiasco?

Just before Christmas we wrote a blog about a hilarious GWCT video in which Scottish gamekeeper Ronnie Kippen (of Garrows Estate, Strathbraan) claimed, with a straight face, that “Rewilding is deadlier to a mountain hare than a 12 bore shotgun“.

Here’s the video again for those that missed it – it’s well worth a few minutes of your day:

But that ridiculous statement wasn’t the only thing to catch our attention. In this video Ronnie Kippen also let on that last year SNH had issued a licence to gamekeepers in Strathbraan to use jackdaws as decoys in Larsen traps (to attract other jackdaws that would then be killed to protect waders).

This was really interesting on a number of points, not least because this was Strathbraan, an area identified in a Government-commissioned report as a raptor persecution hotspot and also the location of the controversial raven cull in 2018 which was successfully challenged by the Scottish Raptor Study Group after it emerged the GWCT’s scientific proposal was “completely inadequate” and “seriously flawed“.

Gamekeepers are permitted to kill jackdaws under the General Licences, but this species cannot be used as a decoy bird inside a Larsen trap in Scotland – only inside crow cage traps. We wanted to know the evidential basis that SNH had used to agree to issuing this licence (i.e. what evidence was provided by the gamekeepers to SNH of the purported damage to waders by jackdaws?) so we submitted an FoI to ask for the licence application and associated documents, as well as the actual licence itself.

SNH has responded with the following letter:

Hmm. Ok, so according to this letter the decision to issue the licence was apparently based on a “site visit“. Hold that in mind and also hold in mind the statement, “We have not yet received a return for this licence“.

Now let’s look at the supporting documentation that SNH released as part of this FoI:

We don’t know who the licence applicant is because the name has been redacted so let’s just call him Mr Gammon. On 27 March 2019 Mr Gammon emailed SNH and asked for a licence. The ‘evidence’ provided by Mr Gammon appears to be that during an undisclosed meeting someone from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said he’d seen jackdaws predating wader eggs and Mr Gammon had agreed with him. That’s it!

Mr Gammon’s ‘evidence’ was apparently sufficient, according to this internal email between SNH’s Robbie Kernahan and an unnamed SNH employee, presumably someone in the licensing dept:

Later that day, an unidentified SNH employee sent an email to SNH licensing asking them to contact Mr Gammon to ask for a licensing application:

The next morning SNH licensing contacted Mr Gammon and asked for some basic details (note, no request for actual evidence):

A couple of days later Mr Gammon responds with the basic information requested, and a map (which has been redacted):

A couple of weeks later, SNH issued the licence to Mr Gammon. Take note that one of the licence conditions has been highlighted – Mr Gammon must submit a return within one month of the licence’s expiry date (31 July 2019):

So, according to all this documentation there was no ‘site visit’ as described in SNH’s letter to us, or if there was, SNH has forgotten to include it in this bundle of associated documents. What actually happened, according to these documents, is that Mr Gammon asked for a licence because some bloke from the BTO had once mentioned jackdaws predating waders and SNH decided to issue one without asking for any supportive evidence.

The second big issue here is that it appears Mr Gammon has breached the licence. A clear condition (#5) of the licence, as highlighted to Mr Gammon by SNH’s cover letter to him, was that ‘the licence holder must provide SNH licensing team with a return within one month of the expiry of this licence [so by 31 August 2019]. The return must summarise all works carried out under the terms of this licence. Please send this information by email’.

According to the FoI cover letter we received from SNH on 31 January 2020, ‘We have not received a return for this licence’.

We’ll be seeking further clarification on this from SNH and seeking assurances that if Mr Gammon is applying for any further licences this year that due consideration is given to this apparent breach of last year’s licence.

Watch this space.

UPDATE 12 March 2020: This morning we received an email from an SNH licensing officer which included the following:

“In my letter about the Jackdaw licence dated 31 March  I include a paragraph which said that no licence return had been received.  This paragraph was included in error.  The licence return was recorded in database and the information is provided in the paragraph above. A corrected version of our response is attached.  I apologise for any confusion this has caused“.

It’s good to receive a swift response from SNH – although it still doesn’t clarify when the licence return was received, nor why a copy of the return wasn’t included in the FoI response docs. Is there a written return, as stipulated by the licence, or was the ‘return’ just a hasty phone call after the deadline?

It also doesn’t address the issue of SNH’s apparent failure to seek evidential support for the licence application. We will be following up on these points.

Raptor persecution in North Yorkshire featured on Crimewatch Roadshow

The illegal killing of birds of prey in North Yorkshire was featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch Roadshow this morning.

The programme is available on BBC iPlayer (here) for 24hrs only (persecution bit starts at 15.20 min)

Well done Inspector Matt Hagen, Head of North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Crime Team for telling it how it is and acknowledging North Yorkshire as the biggest raptor persecution hotspot in the country and identifying Nidderdale as an area of particular concern.

Regular readers of this blog will be only too aware of Nidderdale AONB’s reputation as a massive wildlife crime scene. We’ve blogged about it many, many times including the poisoning and shooting of red kites, hen harriers, buzzards, marsh harriers on Nidderdale grouse moors (as reported by the AONB partnership in September 2019). We’ve also seen how the local community is turning against the criminals in their midst which is hardly surprising when according to the Chair of the Nidderdale AONB these crimes are “starting to have a damaging effect on tourism businesses”. 

Police Inspector Matt Hagen also said this:

“People out there in the community will know who is committing these offences and we just need that information. We need them to tell us, to make raptor persecution unacceptable“.

Having met Matt a few times and spoken at length about raptor persecution, he’s definitely one of the good guys, who, along with his colleague Sgt Stu Grainger, is leading what could be a formidable team in an area where it’s most needed.

If you have ANY information about raptor persecution in North Yorkshire, even if it’s just a suspicion, pass that info on to these guys and they will investigate.

Sparrowhawk shot in Devon

The RSPB and Devon & Cornwall Police are appealing for information after a sparrowhawk was shot in Devon.

[An x-ray of the shot sparrowhawk, by Westmoor Veterinary Hospital]

Map showing Tamar Foliot, near Plymouth, Devon:

From an RSPB press release issued 9 March 2020:

Devon and Cornwall Police and the RSPB are appealing for information after a protected sparrowhawk was found illegally shot near Plymouth.

The female bird was discovered alive but injured in a paddock in Tamerton Foliot, Plymouth. Seeing it was unable to fly, the finder recovered the bird and contacted the police on 2 February 2020.

The bird was x-rayed by Westmoor Veterinary Hospital in Tavistock and found to contain a shotgun pellet in its wing.

Emily Roisetter, a veterinary nurse, said: “On examination one of our vets could feel an unusual lump in its wing, which lead us to be suspicious that a pellet was present, and this was confirmed with the x-rays.”

The bird is currently being cared for at a wildlife centre.

Investigating Officer Sergeant Northmore, of the Crownhill Neighbourhood Team, said: “We would like to hear from anyone who was in the area at the time and saw or heard anything which could have been related to this incident, or has any information they think could be useful, to contact us.”

If you have any information relating to this incident, call Devon and Cornwall Police on 101 or fill in the RSPB’s confidential online reporting form here

ENDS

 

Buzzard shot in Worcestershire

The RSPB and West Mercia Police are appealing for information after a buzzard was shot in Worcestershire.

[The shot buzzard. Photo from RSPB]

Map showing Shelsey Beauchamp, Worcestershire:

From an RSPB press release issued 6 March 2020:

On 20 January 2020, eyewitnesses saw a buzzard being shot from a light-coloured [blue] van near Shelsley Beauchamp, Worcestershire. The bird was brought to Vale Wildlife Centre but due to an irreparable broken wing the bird had to put the bird to sleep.

Unfortunately no further details are provided.

If anyone has any information about this wildlife crime please contact West Mercia Police on 101 or fill in the RSPB’s confidential online reporting form here

 

Wild Justice secures another Westminster debate on banning driven grouse shooting

Six months after Wild Justice’s petition calling for a ban on driven grouse shooting passed the requisite 100,000 signatures, a decision has finally been made to have a parliamentary debate in Westminster.

The date has not yet been decided but is expected to be within the next month.

Of course, this won’t be the first time this subject has been debated at Westminster. The first time was back in 2016, and what a sham that was, but many of those dishonourable members, some with clear vested interests, have since left the building.

Will it be any better, four years on? Wild Justice has some thoughts on that here.

Red kite found shot in Herefordshire

The RSPB and West Mercia Police are appealing for information after a dead red kite was discovered in Herefordshire on New Years Eve.

[The shot red kite. Photo from RSPB]

[Wigmore, Herefordshire]

From an RSPB press release, issued 6 March 2020:

A red kite was found dead in a field in Wigmore, Herefordshire on New Years Eve 2019 by a member of the public. The RSPB and West Mercia Police were notified. When the police collected the bird, they noticed a large hole in the bird’s body.

The RSPB arranged for a post-mortem of the bird, and the results concluded that it had been shot, and that ‘shooting with a single projectile is by far the most likely cause’ of death. Witnesses also confirmed they had heard shooting in the area the day before.

ENDS

If anyone has any further information please contact West Mercia Police on 101 or fill in the RSPB’s confidential online reporting form here

[The shot red kite, photo from RSPB]