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MSPS CALL FOR PROTECTION FOR RAMBLERS

Ramblers' rights must be protected, according to Labour MSPs

Thursday June 14,2007

By Myra Philp

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LABOUR MSPs have called for an urgent review of access laws in the wake of a landmark court ruling allowing Scotland's richest woman to ban ramblers from the grounds of her historic home.

They also want advice sent to sheriffs after Stagecoach founder Ann Gloag was given permission to prevent the public entering a large section of land around Kinfauns Castle in Perthshire.

Mrs Gloag, 64, won a court action against the Ramblers' Association and Perth and Kinross Council in a bid to exclude part of her £4m estate from right to roam legislation.

Sheriff Michael Fletcher heard that Mrs Gloag feared that her family could be the target of kidnappers and that Kinfauns had already been the focus of a plot to steal valuable paintings.

Mrs Gloag's PR man, Jack Irvine, 57, said that she also needed to protect her privacy because she entertains: "captains of industry, royalty and foreign leaders".

In a written judgement, Sheriff Fletcher said that landowners are entitled to sufficient land to be excluded from access rights to ensure their enjoyment of their homes is not unreasonably disturbed.

He added that to ignore occupants' enjoyment of their houses would be a breach of their human rights.

Mrs Gloag was the first landowner to challenge the 2003 legislation.

Yesterday Labour's environment spokeswoman Rhona Brankin described the ruling as "worrying" and claimed it went against the spirit of the Land Reform Bill.

She described the Act, passed in 2003, as a "centrepiece" of the previous Executive's legislation programme.

Speaking during a debate on the environment at the Scottish Parliament, she said: "Labour members on the Rural Affairs and Environment Committee will raise this issue at the first meeting of that committee.

"And they will call for an urgent review of access legislation to examine whether this judgment fundamentally undermines the intentions of the land reform legislation.

"And indeed if that were found to be the case we will be urgently calling on the Executive to bring forward changes to the access legislation in this Parliament."

She claimed it was clear that the intention of the Parliament was that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, which forms part of the act, was to be used as a reference point in such actions.

She added: "I'm calling for advice to be given by the Law Officers of the Scottish Executive to all sheriffs in Scotland to emphasise to them that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is an integral part of the land reform legislation and has to be taken into account in all relevant court cases.

"It is extremely disappointing that the sheriff in the Ann Gloag case has not taken adequate account of the code."