SNH are pretty helpful when it comes to answering questions of a media variety.
Yesterday I asked them whether they had issued any licences for wild hacking in Scotland this year which they could have answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. I also said that I’d be interested in where they were with any applications that had been made but I appreciated they might not be able to tell me that.
However, after a small technical hitch, today I received this response (which I would have had yesterday afternoon were it not for the small technical hitch) and which is perfectly clear and tells me all I can expect to be told at this stage;
We have received an application for wild hacking this year. We are carrying out a thorough review of last year’s licence and intend to share this with interested parties before we complete assessment of this year’s application.
I’m not surprised an application has been made. I’m not surprised that SNH is thinking very carefully about it. I am pleased that they say that interested parties will be given sight of SNH’s thorough review of last year’s licence before SNH completes assessment of this year’s application.
Time is ticking on.
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Time is indeed ticking on.
We were promised a report from SNH at the end of February. Now, three months on, as June the 1st looms large, we have still heard nothing. I fear the glitches you experienced, Mark, may be omnipresent!
Once interested parties’ have perused the review in question, I wonder if it will take SNH a further three months to make the decision to licence or not to licence 2020’s wild hacking!
As a member of the community in question, I am keen to see SNH’s review.
Curlews are nesting in our field and we have left them undisturbed since they arrived. I wonder how those ground breeding birds further up the hill on the moor will fare if and when the falcon hacking related activities start. Those activities involve driving ATVs through moorland to release, monitor and retrieve the birds.
SNH issued a licence last year in which they acknowledged “it would not be possible to enforce conditions about avoiding falcons causing nuisance to neighbours”. For the three months of flying activities could SNH suggest what relevant authority should concerned neighbours contact. They readily issued an untested licence, aspects of which they were unwilling or unable to control. I do hope this has been addressed in the long awaited review.