:00:25. > :00:30.Hello, and a very warm welcome to Landward, your window on the
:00:30. > :00:37.working world of Scotland. We'll be going back to school at the
:00:37. > :00:44.country's first pig academy. But first, here's what is coming up on
:00:44. > :00:51.the programme. Hill tracks, an essential tool for estate
:00:51. > :00:55.management or a blot on the landscape? At the moment it is a
:00:55. > :00:58.death by a 1000 cuts because we are losing a lot of land to tracks and
:00:58. > :01:02.development. We are at the races with a top trainer, Jim Goldie.
:01:02. > :01:05.on, son! Come on, Jack! Go on, boy, that's it. And Iwan learns how to
:01:05. > :01:15.make charcoal. Over to the kiln. Yes. And tip it right down the
:01:15. > :01:15.
:01:15. > :01:18.The Scottish pig industry has a shortage of trained stockmen. You
:01:18. > :01:23.may think there is not much to it, but looking after a pig's welfare
:01:23. > :01:26.and rearing them is a skilled job. To address the problem, Quality
:01:26. > :01:33.Meat Scotland has joined forces with Barony College to set up
:01:33. > :01:36.Scotland's first pig academy. When I first heard we were doing a film
:01:36. > :01:39.about a pig academy, I imagined pigs in mortar boards sitting in a
:01:39. > :01:49.classroom, but of course it's not these guys going back to school,
:01:49. > :01:52.
:01:52. > :01:55.The pig academy is a new, modern apprenticeship for pig keepers.
:01:55. > :01:59.What we're trying to do is take that learning from the more
:01:59. > :02:01.experienced people on the farm and add to it a bit of the rigour you
:02:01. > :02:09.get from college courses and structured education. And how
:02:09. > :02:12.needed is this qualification within the industry? It is vital. Getting
:02:12. > :02:16.staff into the industry is one the biggest challenges we face, and
:02:16. > :02:19.once we have got them, keeping them. It is about giving people job
:02:19. > :02:23.satisfaction as well. They can get that by developing them on the job
:02:23. > :02:29.and that is what this programme will do. Looking after livestock is
:02:29. > :02:32.a responsible job that takes skill and dedication. So making sure any
:02:32. > :02:35.young up and coming stockmen have the right training is vital, not
:02:35. > :02:38.only for the health and well-being of the animal, but also for the
:02:38. > :02:41.economic viability of the business. One benefit for employers is that
:02:41. > :02:46.the course uses distance learning, and students can remain working on
:02:46. > :02:55.the farm. For us, as a business, the biggest attraction is it is
:02:55. > :02:58.done remotely and we can actually not have to send staff off the farm.
:02:58. > :03:02.People think you get from farm to fork, it's just feeding, watering
:03:02. > :03:06.them, keeping them going, but there is a lot more to it. It's quite an
:03:06. > :03:16.interesting and technical kind of thing to get them to grow. Various
:03:16. > :03:17.
:03:17. > :03:23.elements can make a business not profitable. A good stockman who
:03:23. > :03:26.knows about what he's doing is worth his weight is gold. Craig
:03:26. > :03:36.Mackie is the first apprenticed from Slanes Park Farm to sign up
:03:36. > :03:39.
:03:39. > :03:42.for the new pig academy course. Will we be doing today here? We are
:03:42. > :03:46.going to be bedding a couple of pens of the young weening piglets.
:03:46. > :03:49.Probably not a great thing to do on some occasions, but have you ever
:03:49. > :03:54.had any difficult situations? I've been good. I've been lucky so
:03:54. > :04:04.far. I have had a few horror stories in the past, but not too
:04:04. > :04:08.
:04:08. > :04:13.many quite that yet. I got a weaner last year that my friend fattened
:04:13. > :04:16.on the farm for the table, and I have to say the size of my pig was
:04:16. > :04:19.nothing in comparison to the site of this sow, so are nervous before
:04:19. > :04:22.going in. What we are doing is bedding down the sow and the
:04:22. > :04:26.piglets. How carefully you have to be? Slow down, be nice and gentle.
:04:26. > :04:35.Hopefully the piglets will come out as well. It makes life a lot easier.
:04:35. > :04:41.A few piglets in there. Come on! How old are these? They are about
:04:41. > :04:46.two weeks. Come on, come on. They seemed quite happy in there.
:04:46. > :04:53.will put some clumps of straw in. guess being so young, it is a warm
:04:53. > :05:03.day, but the wind is very chilling. Let's get them back round. Here she
:05:03. > :05:04.
:05:04. > :05:14.comes. Alright. Here you go. There we go, back in. They will go back
:05:14. > :05:14.
:05:14. > :05:18.in themselves. It's a good industry to be in. It's tough, it has its
:05:18. > :05:21.times, like they all do, but the industry we are in just now is I
:05:21. > :05:27.think very positive and this is one big positive to see this training
:05:27. > :05:30.thing coming off and getting some new generations into the job. If
:05:30. > :05:40.your boss is investing in you, you will feel a bit of pride and
:05:40. > :05:41.
:05:41. > :05:44.enthusiasm which will have a knock- on effect in the business. We will
:05:44. > :05:51.eventually have, hopefully, the top class of stock men working in
:05:51. > :05:54.Scotland, world class. The pig academy has already attracted six
:05:54. > :05:57.young, eager hopefuls like Craig who was already doing a fantastic
:05:57. > :06:04.job, but with the right training, he and others like him could become
:06:04. > :06:07.And later on the program, Nick will get his pan out and create a
:06:07. > :06:09.delicious pork dish. Now, over the last couple of weeks we have
:06:09. > :06:13.followed the working lives of one of Scotland's top racehorse
:06:13. > :06:19.trainers, Jim Goldie. In the final part of the series, we are heading
:06:19. > :06:26.It's the Saturday morning of the Ayr Gold Cup festival weekend, and
:06:26. > :06:34.the horses are being loaded up at Jim Goldie's yard. Two horses are
:06:34. > :06:38.running in the first race of the And Jim's star sprinter,
:06:38. > :06:41.Hawkeyethenoo, is racing in the Gold Cup itself. The atmosphere at
:06:41. > :06:51.the racecourse is building, and Jack Dexter is going into the first
:06:51. > :06:56.
:06:56. > :07:06.I would prefer it if he wasn't the favourite. It doesn't make them run
:07:06. > :07:07.
:07:07. > :07:13.at any quicker. The expectation is a bit higher. Jockey Graham Lee
:07:13. > :07:18.will be riding Jack Dexter. He won the Grand National back in 2004 on
:07:18. > :07:24.Amberleigh House, and has recently made the move into the flat racing.
:07:24. > :07:34.Jim and his team have prepared Jack as best they can. Now it's all down
:07:34. > :07:41.
:07:41. > :07:51.Racing is a team effort, so there's a lot of players on the team. There
:07:51. > :07:54.are a lot of different things going into making winners. It's not
:07:54. > :07:58.always the best horse that wins, you need a jockey who can get the
:07:58. > :08:01.best out of them, and certainly in Graham Lee we have one of the best
:08:01. > :08:09.about. Hopefully. Hopefully I am saying that after the race. They
:08:09. > :08:11.are lined up. They are off. They get away, and Dexter Jack is
:08:11. > :08:18.possibly the slowest one away, Frequency and Rassaman didn't get
:08:18. > :08:28.that well away. It's not the best start. The race split into two
:08:28. > :08:31.groups, Jack Dexter is on the ride. Come on, son! Go on, Jack! As the
:08:31. > :08:36.race enters the final furlong, Jack Dexter hits the front in the group
:08:36. > :08:40.on the far side. But can he hang on to the finish? Jack Dexter has gone
:08:40. > :08:50.into the lead. By a length-and-a- half. It is Jack Dexter and Graham
:08:50. > :08:54.
:08:55. > :08:57.Lee. Come on, boy, that's it!!! Yes!!! Needed a winner! It's a
:08:58. > :09:04.stylish win and all the sweeter because Jack Dexter is named after
:09:04. > :09:08.Jim's two grandsons and owned by the Jim Goldie Racing Club.
:09:08. > :09:16.trained your mum, trained your dad, and we bred them. I am chuffed to
:09:16. > :09:20.bits. You need good jockeys and good horses. It's a special day.
:09:20. > :09:25.Sadly, Jim couldn't get the double. The heavy going did not suit
:09:25. > :09:35.Hawkeyethenoo. But he still has high hopes for Jack Dexter in the
:09:35. > :09:40.Gold Cup next year, so keep your Still to come on a programme, plans
:09:40. > :09:43.to control the unregulated spread of hill tracks. If it changes, we
:09:43. > :09:46.may have to get planning permission for this, which will add a
:09:46. > :09:55.significant cost and a bureaucratic burden to an already overloaded
:09:55. > :10:05.And perfect pork from the man with a pan. Nice and salty, fresh
:10:05. > :10:12.
:10:12. > :10:16.Rhododendron is the scourge of much of Scotland's countryside. A lot of
:10:16. > :10:19.effort has gone into removing them to make way for native plants. One
:10:19. > :10:28.National Trust scheme just down the road from here involves putting the
:10:28. > :10:30.cut down rhododendrons to good use. Rhododendron is one of Scotland's
:10:30. > :10:36.most invasive species. It suffocates habitats and hampers
:10:36. > :10:39.biodiversity. It's also incredibly difficult to get rid of. Here in
:10:39. > :10:44.Loch Lomond in the Trossachs National Park, they have loads of
:10:44. > :10:47.it. The bushes can easily get four metres high, and basically when
:10:47. > :10:51.they get really dense, they start shading out everything else.
:10:51. > :10:55.rhododendron desert? Yes, a dense rhododendron jungle with nothing
:10:55. > :11:00.else in it. Instead of dozens of species or native plants or
:11:01. > :11:03.bluebells that you see in the springtime, you just have this guy.
:11:03. > :11:13.OK, yes, pretty purple flowers, but nothing compared to a bluebell
:11:13. > :11:14.
:11:14. > :11:16.woodland. There's something like 4000 hectares of the national park
:11:16. > :11:19.already infected with rhododendron, so I think the all invasive non-
:11:19. > :11:22.native species, the early start doing something about it, the
:11:22. > :11:29.better off you are. Clearing rhododendrons, especially big
:11:29. > :11:32.massive ones like this, can be hard work. And once you've cut it, you
:11:32. > :11:40.also have to get rid of it, and usually this stuff would just be
:11:40. > :11:43.burned. But here the National Trust have come up with the unique way of
:11:43. > :11:53.adding value to what essentially was a waste product. We are making
:11:53. > :11:53.
:11:53. > :11:56.charcoal out of rhododendron. The reason we are making charcoal out
:11:56. > :11:59.of rhododendron is because we were doing a lot of rhododendron
:11:59. > :12:03.clearance in the woods and we had so much rhododendron wood to get
:12:03. > :12:07.rid of. We were burning a lot of it and it was all going up in smoke
:12:07. > :12:09.and we just thought, there's got to be something better you can do it
:12:09. > :12:13.than just burn it all. Rhododendron makes absolutely fantastic charcoal.
:12:13. > :12:16.Before we made charcoal, we tried selling it as logs to make use of
:12:16. > :12:22.it, but it's not that great a firewood. It is a bit tarry and
:12:22. > :12:32.crackly. It is actually really good charcoal and we've been doing it
:12:32. > :12:34.
:12:34. > :12:37.for the last five or six years. The trailblazer volunteers are just
:12:37. > :12:40.filling after loading the kiln along with our Ranger, Fraser, and
:12:40. > :12:44.we have a fire getting started at the back which will provide hot
:12:44. > :12:47.embers which are fed into the kiln to get the whole process going.
:12:47. > :12:52.we'll do a bit of stacking. So, we got the rhododendrons. Any
:12:52. > :12:55.particular pattern? We are using a pattern like the spokes of a wheel,
:12:55. > :13:04.leaving a central funnel and that is where the hot embers will go
:13:04. > :13:07.down. It is dry, isn't it? musical fire. So, I want you to
:13:07. > :13:13.pack your sticks nice and tightly, try to fill the gaps as much as
:13:13. > :13:15.possible. We want as much wood and as little air gaps as we can.
:13:15. > :13:23.Unfortunately, rhododendron is twisty, so we don't get many
:13:23. > :13:27.straight lines out of it. That is the last, pretty much the last log.
:13:27. > :13:34.The fire is burning away in the background, so what happens now?
:13:34. > :13:38.have to transfer that fire, all those hot embers down into the kiln.
:13:38. > :13:41.And we will do that so with a pair of thick, heavy duty gloves, and a
:13:41. > :13:44.big wide space. So keep those gloves on. This looks fraught with
:13:44. > :13:54.danger. A shovelful of this? Yes, take some of the embers. Just half
:13:54. > :13:55.
:13:55. > :13:59.a shovelful, that will do fine. And keep it out on the windward side of
:13:59. > :14:05.you, nice and gently, over to the kiln. And tip it right down the
:14:06. > :14:15.middle. That's the way. Look at that. The last one. So what happens
:14:16. > :14:20.
:14:20. > :14:30.now? On with the lid? 1, 2, 3. Maybe. And a bit more. That looks
:14:30. > :14:30.
:14:30. > :14:34.about right. With the lid in place, the rhododendron is left to burn
:14:34. > :14:42.for 24 hours before it is ready to be put into pieces. And here it is,
:14:42. > :14:45.the final product. And what could be better than having a barbecue on
:14:45. > :14:54.the banks of the loch, and cooking the meat with charcoal that was
:14:54. > :14:57.made right here in the woods of If you have a comment about
:14:57. > :15:00.anything you've seen on the programme or have a wonderful story
:15:01. > :15:03.to share with us, one on droppers and e-mail. Now the weather here on
:15:04. > :15:06.the banks of Loch Lomond is warm enough, but it's pretty changeable.
:15:07. > :15:15.So what about the prospects for this weekend and beyond? To find
:15:15. > :15:20.out, here is the land would weather Good evening. Well, after the
:15:21. > :15:26.deluge of rain we have seen over the last 24 hours, things are set
:15:27. > :15:30.That rain is tied in with this static area of low pressure, which
:15:30. > :15:32.is gradually weakening tonight into tomorrow. And we should see some
:15:33. > :15:37.brightness coming through first thing across the far south tomorrow.
:15:37. > :15:40.Elsewhere, a fairly cloudy start to the day with outbreaks of rain,
:15:40. > :15:45.fairly persistent rain across the far north. As that journeys south,
:15:45. > :15:51.it will break up. Come the afternoon, we're looking at
:15:51. > :15:56.cloudier conditions, certainly for I can't ire and the south-west. The
:15:56. > :16:01.best of any dry weather will be towards the border. Nuisance value
:16:01. > :16:08.rain in the central belt. A lot of dry weather Saturday. Patchy rain
:16:08. > :16:12.for Caithness and Yorkny, but fine weather here. Brightness in the
:16:12. > :16:16.Outer Hebrides and the north-west corner. Fresh wind across the far
:16:16. > :16:20.north. Lighter winds elsewhere. If you're thinking of heading to the
:16:20. > :16:24.hills tomorrow, we're starting with the southern areas. For the Border
:16:24. > :16:29.and Galloway hills, showers develop for the afternoon. Fairly breezy at
:16:29. > :16:34.the tops with a strong westerly wind at times. Lighter winds
:16:34. > :16:38.further. In Perthshire and Argyle hills, rain here. Fairly extensive
:16:38. > :16:41.hill fog across the northern range, but that'll lift during the course
:16:41. > :16:47.of the day, staying cloudy, though, winds will be largely light from
:16:47. > :16:54.the east at the tops. For more southern waters, westerly, force
:16:54. > :17:02.three or four locally. Force five around the Mull of Kintyre area.
:17:02. > :17:06.Rain for northern areas - easterly, 4, 5 or 6. Locally 7 around the
:17:06. > :17:10.Northern Isles at times. Moderate or good visibility. Saturday, the
:17:10. > :17:13.rain is starting to peter out through the evening. Dry overnight,
:17:13. > :17:17.but fairly cloudy. Temperatures generally around 7-8 Celsius. For
:17:17. > :17:22.Sunday, we'll be looking at this weather front that has been causing
:17:22. > :17:27.us all the problems with the rain. It has been weakening as it crosses
:17:27. > :17:30.the country. It will brighten up behind the rain. A fairly cloudy
:17:30. > :17:35.start, but outbreaks of rain. Brighter conditions following on,
:17:35. > :17:39.but quite cool thanks to quite a fresh north-easterly wind at times.
:17:39. > :17:43.For Monday this low pressure is a rather weak affair, a few showers
:17:43. > :17:47.in circulation. Ridginging going on, which means a respite from all the
:17:47. > :17:51.unsettled weather we have seen. A few showers in the north. A lot of
:17:51. > :17:54.dry, bright weather and decent spells of sunshine on Sunday, cool
:17:54. > :17:58.on Monday. All change on Tuesday with this weather system coming in
:17:58. > :18:01.from the Atlantic bringing in rain and strong winds, pushing in across
:18:01. > :18:04.the country, but it will be quick as it moves through. So a wet start
:18:04. > :18:09.with strong, gusty gale-force south-easterly winds. The rain
:18:09. > :18:13.moving on with brighter, blustery conditions following behind. For
:18:13. > :18:22.Wednesday, a rather wet day to start with, but it should improve
:18:22. > :18:25.Earlier in the programme, Dougie tried his hand as a pig stock man
:18:25. > :18:32.with mixed results, but I much prefer my pork in this form, a fine,
:18:32. > :18:38.organic Scottish pork fillet. I've come to Hugh Grierson's organic
:18:38. > :18:41.farm near Perth where they rear Berkshire pigs. I'm going to cook
:18:41. > :18:45.one of the pork fillets wrapped in bacon with some summer vegetables
:18:45. > :18:48.from the garden. So the first thing I'm going to do is flatten out the
:18:48. > :18:56.pork fillets into little medallions and then wrap them in bacon. So
:18:56. > :19:00.here's how we do it. I'll just cut these into inch-sized pieces, press
:19:00. > :19:03.them down on the board and then use a steak mallet to flatten them out.
:19:03. > :19:07.Beat them out until they're about the thickness of a beer mat. Season
:19:07. > :19:10.with a little bit of soft sea salt and a turn of freshly ground black
:19:10. > :19:14.pepper, and then I'm going to wrap them in thin slices of ham, and I'm
:19:14. > :19:17.using Parma ham. What the Parma ham does is give this lovely crispy
:19:17. > :19:19.outside, which is going to go really well with my summer garden
:19:19. > :19:22.veg, a kind of ratatouille, courgettes with a little bit of
:19:22. > :19:31.tomato, some chilli, some garlic, some fresh basil, a splash of olive
:19:31. > :19:35.oil, and in goes the little Parma ham medallions. Quite hot at first.
:19:35. > :19:38.You might get a little bit of smoke, maybe the odd flame as they go in,
:19:38. > :19:42.but it's important that the pan is really nice and hot to crisp the
:19:42. > :19:52.bacon up on the outside. Cook the pork until it's nice and crisp on
:19:52. > :19:54.
:19:54. > :19:57.the outside, and then flip it over. Now, once the ham is nice and
:19:57. > :20:01.crispy on the outside, we're going to take the little medallions out,
:20:01. > :20:04.put them onto a plate to let the pork relax. Just going to flip the
:20:04. > :20:08.board over so I have a nice clean side here for doing the veg prep,
:20:08. > :20:12.keep it away from the side we cut the raw meat on, a little courgette
:20:12. > :20:15.from the garden this morning, take the ends off. I'm just going to cut
:20:15. > :20:25.those into little wedges, and we'll chuck them into the pan and get
:20:25. > :20:26.
:20:26. > :20:29.little bit of chopped chilli, a bit of garlic and some chopped ripe
:20:29. > :20:32.tomato, and you can see the juice from the tomato de-glazes the
:20:32. > :20:36.bottom of the pan, so all the flavour from the pork and the bacon
:20:36. > :20:39.goes into the garnish. A splash more of olive oil I think in here
:20:39. > :20:42.and a little bit of seasoning, and in we go with the spring onions,
:20:42. > :20:46.just finely-shred spring onions. Going to add the basil, and that's
:20:46. > :20:49.it. It's really that quick and that simple. I'm just going to carve the
:20:49. > :20:52.pork medallions in half, and there's nothing poncey about this.
:20:52. > :20:55.This is really rustic, lovely food, and finally, a little bit more of
:20:55. > :20:58.the courgette-tomato garnish on top - all of those lovely
:20:58. > :21:02.Mediterranean-style flavours. Nothing worse than eating alone,
:21:02. > :21:07.but luckily, the lady whose pigs these are is at hand. Sasha, what
:21:07. > :21:10.do you think? Looks great, really fresh. I think it's summery.
:21:10. > :21:16.lovely light, delicious flavour, a real sense of the pork, nice and
:21:16. > :21:26.salty, fresh vegetables - delicious. Now, that just shows you how easy
:21:26. > :21:27.
:21:27. > :21:29.it is to make dishes with just a Scotland's hills are part of our
:21:29. > :21:32.national identity. The emotive image of a rugged upland wilderness
:21:32. > :21:36.which gave birth to hardy, yet friendly, people is used both here
:21:36. > :21:38.at home and to market us abroad. Little wonder, then, that any
:21:38. > :21:48.potential development within that landscape causes great controversy,
:21:48. > :21:56.
:21:56. > :21:59.as I found out when I looked into Beautiful, aren't they? Scotland's
:21:59. > :22:09.imposing Uplands, the perfect place to escape the overbearing march of
:22:09. > :22:13.
:22:13. > :22:15.development - or are they? The appearance of tracks snaking across
:22:15. > :22:18.Scotland's hillsides has caused great controversy - so much so, the
:22:18. > :22:20.Government has proposed stricter controls, which would mean that
:22:20. > :22:30.every new forestry or farm track would have to get planning
:22:30. > :22:36.
:22:36. > :22:38.permission. At the moment, they don't need permission. They're
:22:38. > :22:41.allowed under the general permitted development order, a system which
:22:41. > :22:45.was designed to streamline the planning process, but if Government
:22:45. > :22:47.proposals go ahead, they will need full planning permission. It's
:22:47. > :22:54.something conservation group The John Muir Trust has been
:22:54. > :22:57.campaigning for. If you're going to drive a tract through the middle of
:22:57. > :23:01.Aberdeen, you'd have to go through the planning process, but at the
:23:01. > :23:04.moment, to put it in our wild land, you're just able to jump in a
:23:04. > :23:07.bulldozer and, you know, put a track in anywhere, and we just
:23:07. > :23:09.think that's not really fair and reasonable and that if you have a
:23:09. > :23:14.planning process, you have an opportunity to weigh up the
:23:14. > :23:17.economic benefits and the environmental costs. If you drive
:23:17. > :23:20.up the A9, for example, Scotland looks a bit like a building site.
:23:20. > :23:23.We have a whole range of infrastructure going in. We've got
:23:23. > :23:26.wind farms. We've got hydro schemes. We've got grouse tracks and deer
:23:26. > :23:30.tracks, and I think it's really how we treat this environment. At the
:23:30. > :23:33.moment, it's kind of death by a thousand cuts. We seem to be losing
:23:33. > :23:37.a lot of our wild land to tracks and developments, and this is part
:23:37. > :23:40.of the problem, but the main issue here is to do with the planning
:23:40. > :23:42.process and the fact that you can do this without any discussion with
:23:42. > :23:45.anybody, really. The controversy has arisen largely because of hill
:23:45. > :23:49.track, but under the Government's proposals, all forestry and farming
:23:49. > :23:56.tracks will have to go through planning. This concerns many,
:23:56. > :23:59.including Simon Blackette, factor of Invercauld estate. We're now in
:23:59. > :24:09.this ancient Caledonian forest here. These trees are about sort of 40 or
:24:09. > :24:10.
:24:10. > :24:14.50 years old. We've got an access track here which was fine 50 years
:24:14. > :24:17.ago, but as you can see, it's OK for driving Land Rovers up, but we
:24:17. > :24:20.need to be able to manage these trees, extract these trees, so we
:24:20. > :24:22.need to be able to bring big lorries up. Under normal
:24:22. > :24:26.circumstances, you contact a contractor. You get a quote for
:24:26. > :24:29.this. He comes in. He does the work. He follows the water and forest
:24:29. > :24:32.guidelines, and that's fine. If it changes, we may have to get
:24:32. > :24:34.planning permission for this, which will add a significant cost and a
:24:34. > :24:36.bureaucratic burden to an already overloaded planning system, so it
:24:36. > :24:39.will probably make a questionably viable job completely uneconomic.
:24:39. > :24:43.The discussion arose because of one or two inappropriate hill tracks
:24:43. > :24:46.that have been put in over the last - good number of year, and yes,
:24:46. > :24:49.there have been some bad examples, but you shouldn't have to change
:24:49. > :24:51.the world because of one or two small examples. If this forest
:24:51. > :25:01.track has to be upgraded with planning permission, then somebody
:25:01. > :25:02.
:25:02. > :25:08.has really got it wrong. However, it's also claimed that some estates
:25:08. > :25:10.are misusing the planning loophole. At the moment, we have hill tracks
:25:10. > :25:12.that can be constructed under permitted development for
:25:12. > :25:22.agricultural purposes and forestry, but quite often, they are put up
:25:22. > :25:23.
:25:23. > :25:26.under that pretence. They're quite often being used for sporting
:25:26. > :25:29.purposes, and that, as I say, gives problems - the planning authority
:25:30. > :25:36.then have to try and prove what the true purpose is and then try and
:25:36. > :25:40.get planning permission for them. The accusation from many is that
:25:40. > :25:43.the creation of upland hill tracks is simply to get people who are
:25:43. > :25:50.coming to shoot on estates there without actually walking and it's a
:25:50. > :25:54.misuse of the current set-up. How do you respond to that? Well, some
:25:54. > :25:56.people actually come here because they like a good walk, and a number
:25:56. > :26:02.of our clients actually say, "Actually, I don't want to drive
:26:02. > :26:06.too far." But we've actually got the issue of the guys who are
:26:06. > :26:08.actually going to - who's got to do the job, the game keepers. We
:26:08. > :26:12.employ 15 game keepers on this estate, and they're all employed
:26:12. > :26:15.because of the grouse. And it's part of their tool. They need to be
:26:16. > :26:19.able to get out without knocking the hell out of the vehicles, so
:26:19. > :26:22.you need a road that's fit for purpose, and a lot of the roads,
:26:22. > :26:25.like this one, are not fit for purpose, and we need to maintain
:26:26. > :26:28.them in a state they are fit for purpose. Anyone who has ever
:26:28. > :26:31.applied for planning to get a conservatory built or whatever will
:26:32. > :26:35.know the process takes a long time. Will this not just completely clog
:26:35. > :26:37.up the system? No, I don't think so. The vast majority of tracks will
:26:37. > :26:40.not be contentious, and the planning application or the
:26:40. > :26:44.requirement for a hill track is not something that most estates or
:26:44. > :26:46.forestry are going to do at the drop of a hat. These things
:26:46. > :26:52.sometimes have a gestation period of months, years even, particularly
:26:52. > :26:56.forestry. They go through quite a long process, which at the moment
:26:56. > :27:00.bypasses the general public. that your concern? You want the
:27:00. > :27:03.public to be aware of these things? Well, the general public will not
:27:03. > :27:05.be aware of many of these consultative processes like the
:27:05. > :27:08.forestry systems, and the only system most people will understand
:27:08. > :27:11.is the planning system, and that's what they look to, and we believe
:27:11. > :27:21.that all changes to the landscape should come through the planning
:27:21. > :27:21.
:27:21. > :27:24.system, so everyone has a chance to comment on them. The Government has
:27:24. > :27:28.consulted on its proposed changes to the planning regime and will
:27:28. > :27:31.announce its conclusions shortly. Whatever the outcome, it's unlikely
:27:31. > :27:41.to bring an end to the long-running debate over how much development is
:27:41. > :27:43.acceptable in our hills. And we'll bring you the
:27:43. > :27:47.Government's conclusions on the issue of hill tracks when they're
:27:47. > :27:52.announced. Now there's just time for me to announce what's on our
:27:52. > :28:01.agenda next week. The Scottish dairy industry at a cross-roads
:28:01. > :28:05.just need fair milk price. We understand entirely that we need to
:28:05. > :28:09.be efficient and we need to do the job well. We don't need to be
:28:09. > :28:12.feather bedded. We just need a fair place. We meet one of only two
:28:12. > :28:14.fully qualified female farriers in the country. An awful lot of hard
:28:14. > :28:22.work, a huge understanding of anatomy and physiology and
:28:22. > :28:29.biomechanics. $$NEWLINE# You're the dreamiest girl. #