By : Rob Edwards
A prominent landowner renowned for his green credentials has been accused of ruining legally protected mountain and woodland scenery to host a prestigious promotion for a new Land Rover model.
John Grant, a member of several government bodies, has carried out excavation work on 1,000 metres of rough tracks across hillsides and through pinewoods on his Rothiemurchus estate in the Cairngorms, near Aviemore
The tracks were made, without obtaining permission from the authorities, to enable his estate to accommodate an international pre-launch event for new Land Rover Discovery and Defender models.
Over the past three weeks, about 400 journalists and 400 dealers from 22 countries have driven around the estate in advance of their global launches on Tuesday.
Planning authorities have now started an investigation into the work and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), which earlier this year gave Grant £150,000 towards managing recreation and conservation on his land, has asked him to remedy the situation.
Environmentalists have also called for Grant to be sacked from the Cairngorms Partnership, the government body set up to protect the mountain range.
According to Adam Watson, a leading ecological expert on the Cairngorms, the tracks scar a “stunningly beautiful landscape.
He said “Trees and bushes have been heaved aside, boulders and tree stumps have been excavated and dumped on heather. It is an appalling mess of mud and water.”
Grant is one of Scotland’s most high-profile private landowners. As well as being vice-president of the Scottish Landowners’ Federation and serving on the Cairngorms Partnership he is a member of the executive committee of the National Trust for Scotland and was chairman of the Scottish Office’s Tourism and Environment Task Force for three years until last June.
Although he has a reputation as a good conservationist he is also well-known in the Highlands for his ability to find fresh ways of raising income for his estate.
But SNH, the government agency, says that in preparing for the Land Rover event Grant irreparably damaged the North Rothiemurchus Pinewood Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), which is on his land. SSSIs are protected from “potentially damaging operations” under the 1981 Wild and Countryside Act.
The excavated tracks also include one on Ord Ban, a popular hill within a designed National Scenic Area which is regulated by Highland Council.
SNH says that “engineering works” on tracks – including installation of a new cattle grid – have been done without consent and without proper consultation.
“There has been loss or damage to the conservation interests of the sites used for the [Land Rover] event,” said George Hogg, the agency’s area manager.
“The next stage is to work with Rothiemurchus estate to find ways to remedy the situation as much as possible. We are also working with the estate to finds ways to resolve the misunderstandings over the degree of consultation required, and to avoid a similar situation occurring in the future.”
Local conservationists are appalled at the damage. Pat Wells, convener Badenoch and Strathspey Conservation Group, which first complained about the tracks, said: “John Grant did not even consult the statutory bodies he was required to consult by law before carrying out the works on Rothiemurchus. With such an approach what hope is there for any form of partnership between a landowner and other interested parties?”
She added it was time for Grant’s membership of the Cairngorms Partnership to be reviewed.
Planners from the council’s Badenoch and Strathspey Office confirmed they had received a complaint about the tracks and had launched an investigation.
Grant, however, dismissed the conservationists’ allegations as “nonsense”, saying no new tracks had been created. He said the work was simply to protect existing tracks by laying stones.
He went on to accuse SNH of failing to alert him to problems, leaving the estate in blissful ignorance of any difference in interpretation which there may have been … over track maintenance work”. He added: “We’ve done our best and we’ve done everything expected of us.”
Grant also said the Highland economy had benefited from the event. He said: “As a direct consequence, 100 people were brought into the Highlands each day. In a fragile economy such as ours, this represents a significant economic benefit.”
Letters, etc. 
“Grant also said the Highland economy had benefited from the event” – as ever, when they want our freedoms, they cite terrorism and paedophiles ; when they damage our ‘wild land’, they cite tourism and jobs.