Support our Campaign
Road Sense aims to fulfil its objectives by engaging the services of professionals as required, for example, to mount legal challenges. To do this we need to raise significant funds from within our communities and beyond. We are asking members of our communities to support us with a minimum pledge of £150 per household. To pledge your financial support, click here.
If you wish to make a donation now, please send cheques payable to Road Sense to Stuart Palmer, 3 Hill Farm, Contlaw Road, Milltimber, AB13 0ET.
Volunteer your expertise
Road Sense are looking for volunteers who can offer help or expertise in the following areas:
- Press & Public Relations
- Political Lobbying
- Business Community Group (are you a member of the Chamber of Commerce?)
- Fundraising
- Letter writing (to MPs, MSPs, and Local councillors)
- Technical assistance (construction trade, planners, statisticians, mathematical modellers, etc.)
- Liaison with Friends of the Earth and NESTRANS
- Environmental Surveys (on the environmental impact of the route, and historic, social, archaeological and geological issues)
(see below for more details)
If you feel you can offer any of these or other sources of support, we would love to hear from you. Please email us or contact your local community representative ('Contact Us' page).
Environmental surveys: YOUR help needed
The Western Peripheral Routes will cut through large tracts of farmland, open countryside and woodland, significantly affecting the surrounding environments and fragmenting habitats. While the AWPR team will employ their own professional habitat surveyors, we have the advantage of living in the area under threat and therefore being able to monitor the environment on a daily basis.
Road Sense have set up an environmental sub-group to collate information for possible use in a public enquiry. We need to build up a detailed picture of the flora and fauna of a wide swathe surrounding the ‘preferred lines’ of the roads - and this is where we need YOUR help.
We need you to give us:
- the location of any specific areas that you think would benefit from more detailed expert investigation;
- lists of birds & mammals seen in your garden;
- information on sightings of any of the protected species listed in the attachment, and particularly the location of roosting/nesting/dwelling sites. (Click here for the list of species with special protection).
With each piece of information we need to know:
- location (ideally a 6-figure grid reference)
- date and rough time
and if you have photos or other hard evidence, so much the better.
We will also need volunteers to help with site surveys in the coming months. If you could spare a couple of hours please let us know so that we can add your name to our list. (No specialist knowledge required!)
Please send your records to your nearest local volunteer:
A search for red squirrels
In May, a group of more than 20 intrepid Road Sense enthusiasts went on a search for red squirrels along the currently proposed AWPR route.
Red squirrels were once common in Scotland. Now, they are quite rare. Much of their pine forest habitat has been destroyed. In addition, the presence of the alien grey squirrel – imported originally from North America - and carrying a pox which is lethal to their red cousins - means that the red squirrel now only thrives in a few places. One of these is Deeside.
Because it is threatened, the red squirrel is protected as a priority species by the Wildlife and Countryside Act of 1981 and is the subject of a biodiversity action plan. It is an offence to intentionally kill, injure or capture any red squirrel. Under the Nature Conservation Act it is also illegal to destroy a red squirrel’s nest or drey, or even to remove a tree which contains a red squirrel drey. So, if red squirrels are common in a wood, it becomes difficult to force a major road through it!
On a recent environmental foray, a group of men, women and children found considerable evidence of red squirrels, along with grey squirrels and badgers, in a large wooded area along the proposed bypass route. They first came across feeding sites for grey squirrels, with shells of beech masts and acorns. In a nearby beech tree they observed a rather scruffy platform of twigs and debris – probably a grey squirrel drey. A badger latrine was spotted - an area of soil containing badger droppings, close to a regularly-used badger pad or track. Badgers are also protected, but unlike red squirrels, which cannot be caught and removed, the government can license the removal of badgers if they are in the way of a road.
Later on their walk through a wooded area of tall mature pines spaced well apart, they found further evidence of squirrels everywhere. The ground was covered with fragments of pine cone. Red squirrels nibble at the cones to eat the pine nuts inside them. The squirrel nibbles out the seeds along one edge, and then, rotates the cone with its front paws and strips out another line of seeds. The stripped cones are found on the ground or on feeding tables, which may be tussocks of grass or even sawn through pine trunks. They found an abundance of feeding places throughout pine wood (click here to see the photograph).
Glancing up from the feeding sites they were able to see the squirrel dreys high in the pine trees. These are almost spherical masses of twigs and leaves forming a hollow ball in a fork amongst the branches close to the trunk of a tree (click here to see the photograph). The inside is lined with moss, dried grass and hair. Each squirrel may have two or three dreys which it moves between. The drey is used for shelter and sleep at night, and also as a nest in which the young are raised.
The next plan of action for the environmental group is to prove that these dreys are those of red squirrels rather than their grey cousins, as it is only the native red species which is protected. To do this, the AWPR’s own biologists have placed some squirrel tunnels in the woods (click here to see the photograph). These tunnels are open at each end, and have nuts placed in the middle. Small sticky patches of tape are stuck to the roof to catch the hairs of any squirrels silly enough to pass through them. As the hairs of red squirrels are different to those of the greys it is possible to tell which species is present. Unfortunately, some of the tunnels the Road Sense group found were in the wrong places, on small birch trees close to the ground, and even close to the road. However, Road Sense has evidence of red squirrels thanks to the observations made by local people who have seen them on many occasions.
With the expedition successful, and the positions of some of the dreys placed firmly on the map the environmental enthusiasts went home for tea – knowing a bit more about the countryside around them, and confirmed in their view that they cannot allow this road to be constructed
.
Campaign with us
We live in a democracy and the voice of every citizen counts. Our elected representatives are obliged to listen and respond to our concerns. During the 1990s, 150 road schemes were cancelled across the UK through pressure applied by local communities. Even within Aberdeen, the success of the Camphill campaign demonstrates what can be achieved. However, we do need to maintain a loud and vociferous yet well-argued campaign of opposition using every possible opportunity to express our views. We rely on our supporters within and beyond our communities to register their concerns in every way possible but especially by contacting their councillors, MSPs, MPs, and MEPs; writing to the local media; and raising awareness amongst their friends, neighbours and colleagues.
Flawed Consultation Process: Make your views known now!
Many people have indicated that AWPR officials told them that there was little need or purpose in objecting to the Milltimber Brae and Peterculter/Stonehaven routes because there was minimal likelihood of these being selected by the Scottish Executive, given that the preferred routes were Murtle and Pitfodels. The Transport Minister Tavish Scott has denied these claims made by local residents. If you feel you were misinformed, please write a statement to this effect, indicating what you were told about the different routes, and any other relevant issues you raised or information you received. Write to Tavish Scott (contact details below), and send a copy to Road Sense via Derek Cowie, The Mill, Invercrynoch, Maryculter, Aberdeen, AB12 5GX. Be sure to include the date, your name, address and signature.
Write to the politicians
It is important to realise that every letter of opposition is registered and counted, however the views are articulated. Some of our supporters may prefer to use a standard letter (Objection Letter), others may find a list of key points (Objection Points) to be helpful. Either form of communication will be effective but a letter in your own words is likely to have a greater impact.
We suggest you write in the first instance to your local MSP but copy your correspondence to other elected representatives and especially to the Ministers listed below:
Jack McConnell, First Minister
The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh EH99 1SP
Tel: 0131 348 5831; Fax: 0131 348 5562/3;
Email:Jack.Mcconnell.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Tavish Scott, Transport Minister
The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh EH99 1SP
Tel: 0131 348 5891; Fax: 0131 348 5807;
Email:Tavish.Scott.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Nicol Stephen, Deputy First Minister
173 Crown Street, Aberdeen AB11 6JA
Tel: 01224 252 728; Fax: 01224 590926
Email: Nicol.Stephen.msp@scottish.parliament.uk
Contact your councillor
Aberdeen City councillor (http://www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/acc/YourCouncil/Councillors/default.asp)
Aberdeenshire Councillor
(http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/councillors/contact/index.asp).
Contact your MSP (List of MSPs / MSP Contact Details)
Contact your MP
Aberdeen North: Mr Frank Doran
Aberdeen South: Miss Anne Begg
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine: Sir Robert Smith
Contact your MEP:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/MembersMain.htm.
Contact Scottish Parliamentary committees:
Scottish Parliament Committees have a cross-party membership and play a central part in the work of the Parliament – taking evidence from witnesses, scrutinising legislation and conducting inquiries. You can write about your concerns regarding the proposed AWPR to members of the following two committees:
Local Government and Transport Committee
Environment and Rural Development Committee
Write letters to the press
The Press & Journal
Evening Express.
The Herald.
The Scotsman.
