This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New grants for woodland in Ayrshire & Arran
27/01/2003
A plan for using woodlands and forests to improve
people's lives in Ayrshire & Arran - and £1.2 million
worth of special new Executive grants to encourage woodland
planting there - were announced today.
Forestry Minister Allan Wilson unveiled the Ayrshire
& Arran Woodland Strategy at an event in Kelburn
Castle, near Largs.
He also announced that the new grant, the Ayrshire &
Arran Woodlands Locational Premium, will pay between £800
and £2000 a hectare (£320 - £800 an acre), depending on
woodland type and land quality, to help landowners plant
new woodlands that help to achieve the Strategy's
goals.
It will be available for up to 40ha (100 acres) per
woodland scheme in specific parts of Ayrshire, and will be
payable in addition to standard grants from the Forestry
Commission's new Scottish Forestry Grants Scheme (SFGS). A
total of £1.2 million will be available for the Ayrshire
Premium over the next three years, and it is designed to
encourage tree planting that helps to achieve one or more
of the main aims of the Strategy, which are:
* to establish well designed woodlands that will produce
high-quality timber;
* to establish native and riparian (riverbank) woodlands
for nature conservation;
* to establish woodlands designed to restore landscapes
that have been damaged by industrial activity such as
mining;
* to establish woodlands in and around towns and
villages that will provide attractive settings and
accessible opportunities for recreation near the places
where people live and work; and
* to establish farm woodlands to diversify the farmed
landscape.
"The development of woodlands offers a broad range of
environmental, social and economic benefits," Mr Wilson
said. "Forestry is important to Ayrshire & Arran, with
employment in the forestry industry making a valuable
contribution to the economy and supporting more than 2000
local jobs. As the forests mature, the harvesting of timber
will increase. This brings with it the potential for
developing new wood processing plants. Ayrshire has
advantages in terms of good access to forests and to
markets, and the strategy has identified several locations
which will be safeguarded as potential sites for the
wood-processing industry.
"We should also recognise the environmental value of
trees and, in particular, the massive contribution that
tree planting can make towards the restoration of
landscapes that have been altered significantly by land
management or mineral extraction. The Strategy usefully
identifies landscapes of very poor quality, such as the
Garnock Valley, the upper Doon Valley and parts of the
Cronberry / New Cumnock area, which would benefit from
woodland planting."
Mr Wilson particularly welcomed the fact that the
Strategy was drafted in consultation with local
communities, and noted that "many of the people living in
Ayrshire & Arran who responded to the consultation were
strongly in favour of the creation of urban woodlands to
enhance the amenity and settings of the places where they
live.
"Woodland on the edge of towns and villages also creates
a number of recreational and social opportunities, ... and
the Strategy identifies a number of locations that would
benefit from urban-edge woodland planting. The development
of woodland in these locations will provide new
recreational opportunities for local residents and increase
the landscape quality of their immediate surroundings, and
the Premium will offer £2000 a hectare extra to help
landowners plant woodland around towns, including
Ardrossan, Irvine, Kilmarnock, Stewarton, Prestwick and
Mauchline."
The Ayrshire & Arran Woodland Strategy was drawn up
by the Forestry Commission, the North, South and East
Ayrshire Councils, Scottish Natural Heritage, the forestry
and timber industries and others, in consultation with
local communities.
Ian Johnson, manager of the Ayrshire Joint Structure
Plan and Transportation Committee, said,
"The Strategy announced today is only the first stage in
the process. The coming months will see the partnership
turning its efforts to implementing the ideas generated by
working with agencies and communities in Ayrshire. Already
areas have been identified as areas that would benefit from
new planting."
Mr Wilson had previously announced that SFGS Locational
Premiums will be available in five locations - Ayrshire,
the Central Scotland Forest, Grampian, Orkney and Shetland.
Today's announcement gives the grant levels being offered
in Ayrshire; details of the Grampian premium have been
announced, and the others are being finalised for
announcement over the next month.
The Scottish Executive uses locational premiums to
encourage woodland planting in parts of Scotland where it
is considered a priority for environmental, economic or
social reasons. They are offered through the Forestry
Commission on a first-come, first-served basis to
high-quality applications until the budget for each year
has been allocated.
The Forestry Commission acts in Scotland as the
Executive's forestry department.