“The proof of the pudding is in the eating” goes the old adage. And that is exactly what the people who commented on East Lothian Council’s draft strategy during the consultation had to say about the rather long and verbose document:
The main feeling was that they Strategy has all the right words, but how will it be implemented?
Cabinet paper – 14 May 2024
The Strategy has a great many perhaps too many words for mere mortals to read and absorb, with seven themes, aims, targets and actions, a plethora of maps and strategic, environmental and equalities impact assessments to get your head around. But as guidance and aspiration it is nevertheless a remarkable achievement, for East Lothian is probably among the least natural and possibly the least well-wooded area in South Scotland. There would be a lot less had the eighteenth century agricultural improvers not been stalled by the plethora of large mansion owners (to some extent their paymasters), who, to their credit were the last lot who dared to dream of a well wooded landscape.
ELC say they intend to do quite a bit to achieve the targets, and ultimately, the Vision.
Unfunded commitments
There are no direct financial implications associated with approval of this Proposed Strategy … the achievement of some (sic!) of the Targets and the Actions in the Proposed Strategy will require external funding and resources. Staff time will be required to carry out three yearly monitoring of the progress towards completions of the Targets within the Strategy. So I asked a passer by what they thought about this and got:
IMO staff time could be better redeployed to actively promoting the strategy instead, but there’s no better displacement activity than creating an action plan and then monitoring it.
The second part is “Spatial Guidance”, showing where woodland creation and tree planting would be best placed. A map of sensitivities shows factors that may prevent or limit woodland types and planting. This seems like a valid approach, except that even where there are constraints there are opportunities. So even golf courses are mentioned as areas for woodlands expansion. Surely a good thing (there’s a surplus of courses according to my informant).
The third is Delivery. It includes an Action Plan and a section on the Climate Forest and what this could achieve through and in addition to the planting of 2 million trees. It also includes information on what the Council already do with regards to trees and woodlands and how people can become involved.
The Strategy is of course primarily a guidance document, so not a prescription and reiterates the narrative of the right types of planting in the right places (but the thing is for most of the area is already heavily constrained and biological systems don’t always follow the deterministic or reductionist methodology). If you add to that the goal of extracting multiple benefits, a bit utilitarian, it makes the job even harder.
The Strategy will be a material consideration by Scottish Forestry in woodland grant applications. It will provide advice to landowners and managers and others seeking to manage woodland and plant trees. It will also provide advice to developers on planning proposals that include woodland removal or woodland creation. Onn this last point it would be good to see a creative formula that sees any woodland losses compensated at a ratio of 20 new ha of woodland created for every ha lost. Just thinking aloud, but we might be able to fill in the gaps.
Collaborative working between many different parties over the long term is vital to achieve the Strategy Vision. Well this is obviously true, and a good thing, as long as the actors are not conniving to undermine nature recovery goals.
Self evidently private landowners and businesses will play a significant and central role in its delivery as much of the land in council ownership will be prioritised for other things, like playparks and pumptracks, which may be fashionable this week but what about next week?
