I AM writing in response to David Barnes’s letter “Money talks for those helping to ruin Skye” (April 13), and the accompanying photograph. Mr Barnes seems to have an issue with progress in general and, more specifically, with the concept of a vibrant economy supporting livelihoods across Skye and Raasay.
The accompanying photograph, taken in 2017, does not reflect the current situation on Skye or the extensive work undertaken by SkyeConnect (the destination management organisation), the network of community trusts, the Highland Council, Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland and the Scottish Government. Infrastructure improvements have and are continuing to be made.
READ MORE: Those who have ruined the Isle of Skye seek public money to make it worse
Among other things, we are working on an infrastructure investment plan for Skye and Raasay and utilising the latest technology to manage visitor flow around the island.
Dismissing this work as somehow seeking to ruin Skye does a disservice to the thousands of people who are part of a tourism economy worth £260 million a year, pre-Covid. Our focus must be on helping our industry to recover, rather than seeking a return to some rose-tinted vision of an island without a tourism industry.
Dave Till
Chair, SkyeConnect
FOUR responsible,middle-age guys on a cycle camping/hostel trip on the Hebridean Way last August when the lockdown had been lifted returning via Uig and down to Portree, stopped at a petrol station for some bits and pieces and politely asked for a local camping spot and were rudely told that we were not wanted here. I fully understood her anger but we are not all the same.
I wish folk could use their judgement better. Even on Harris we met with a bit of hostility when a man tooled up in a 4x4 and told us we couldn’t camp there for the night. We offered ID and asked him to come back in the morning to check that we hadn’t trashed the place. Fortunately he calmed down once we ensured him that we were responsible campers.
Just yesterday, whilst exploring the nearby Lennox Forest me and my pal discovered a drinking den. A discarded tent and the remains of a fire – a fire in the middle of a tinder dry forest! – plus bags of rubbish, plastic bottles and empty beer cans spread everywhere. We were quite angry and sad at the sight of this.
I’ve come across a few of these in the local Craigallian Forest and am at a loss as to what we can do about it and I imagine that’s what Skye has had it’s share of. I’m embarrassed by this. A tourist tax, possibly. As for the youths that tool up with a cheap tent, a bag of booze and no sense of responsibility, I haven’t a clue.
Roy Loughran
via thenational.scot
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