WILDFIRE raged through the Galloway Forest Park GROWING BARLEY for whisky is a mainstay of Scottish arable farming – but under lockdown, maltsters and distillers had to put the brakes on production, casting doubt on what harvest market will be waiting for the crops that many growers had just finished establishing. It costs a lot of time and money to completely shutdown and restart a distillery, so many of Scotland’s were still open with a skeleton staff to keep them ticking over, with some producing ethanol for hand sanitiser, but none were going ‘full bore’ at whisky production. Distillery bosses were understood to be keen to resume full production, but were awaiting an indication from the authorities that their business was sufficiently important to justify bringing a full staff back in.
AS coronavirus restrictions rumble on, fly tipping remains a major cause of concern and anger for the rural communities of Ayrshire. In response, the Ayrshire Partnership Against Rural Crime (APARC) has brought together several key stakeholders – Police Scotland Ayrshire Division, East Ayrshire Council and South Ayrshire Council – to build solutions to tackle the problem. The local authorities and Police Scotland are coordinating their efforts to ensure that there is a prompt response, developing an intelligence picture with respect to the perpetrators of fly tipping and, where appropriate, conducting joint investigation and enforcement. The new approach has already seen several offenders traced and issued with Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) in the communities of Hurlford, Newmilns and Galston. Further areas where fly tipping and anti-social behaviour has been prevalent include the Galloway Forest Park around Loch Doon, Whitelee Wind Farm and locations around New Cumnock