yeah, lets get the official spin on this one.

This much investment in one remote corner of the UK is daft.

ah, but its the jewel in the crown[/url] according to the environment minister.

pity the rest of the crown is made of tin cans.

enduro the board minutes i linked to specifically state its for access to the peel. An area the size of beecraigs forest to improve access to a visitor centre – i smell sh!te.

yeah, The ICO and the SICO are two different beasts altogether. I agree that in reality not all requests are treated as FOI, but they are all requests nonetheless.

The FES board meeting minutes recorded their offer to buy the place on 15 june this year so i'd expect something to have been recorded about it- agenda item 4

Unfortunately I'm well aware of the tricks of the trade of FC and others to get round avoiding publishing things – one of their all time favourites is to hold items in "draft" form as publications are only in the public domain once published. Another interesting one we've seen is writing notes on the back of documents and only copying the printed side. Sneaky….

hels – unfortunately even though Forestry Commission Scotland are a Scottish operation, they are a UK Government body so are governed by the UK act.

In any case, any request for information made to a public body subject to FOI legislation has to be treated as an FOI, even if it doen't refer directly to the legislation.

I've put in a request through the website and will keep you posted.

I've been through an FOI with the Forestry Commission before, it took 600 days to get an answer 🙂 But yeah, I will ask them actually – I have nothing pencilled in for the next 2 years that i cant afford to miss.

Incidentally, Glentress is currently approx 2500 acres, so they've just bought up almost 50% of that size again.

@hels – your point leads back to my original question – why are FC buying farmland? and a 1000 fcukin acres of it too.

Anyway local chat is that the FCS bought heaps of land around the place to stop anybody opening a competing centre.

nail on head. Protectionism using taxpayers cash.

I think the point here is that FC are buying up YET MORE land in this area that has no real value or purpose. Look at lot 4 and 5 on page 10 in the sale brochure. its arable pasture / hill sheep farming land FFS.

Its also a thousand acres of land – quite what level of "access" they are putting in is beyond me.

In any case I can't see how or why they need both lots, surely lot 4 is the most relevant place.

I smell a big rat made of sitka.

just get the neighbour to his left to move 2 ft into his patch etc.

try a bit of fertilisation on your patch. i.e. drop a cleveland steamer right on the boundary. If you are good you could write "**** off" but its hard to form the f's properly.

I thought that too- but they have changed the name of it.

and the merry go-round of the civil service spending their careers talking about this whilst spunking hundreds of thousands on unused consultancies carries on.

preferred partner agreement? Sounds like something FC would keep in "draft" to prevent the pesky public FOI'ing it…

Got a link?

i taped something off the radio once and kept it. I'm pretty sure thats illegal…

maybe my sarcasm was a bit too subtle there tj 😉

oh and for all the innerleithen haterz the local community want the chairlift NOW! so it will definitely happen. I'm slightly concerned that the glentress multiplier is reaching exponential levels – 400K visitors a year? Really?

Source: peebles rag.[/url]

ditto big john, although it would more likely be called total wipeoff if i auditioned- shes gorgeous.

no, i want to know what frank said! i feel a complaint coming on…

well, The property I was thinking of was falladale which went for 466k in January 2008, but I'd forgotten about this little gem, a snip at 850k with a further 1/2 mil to tear it down.

cheap at twice the price

so what did frank say?

i'm checking my facts as we speak.

Regardless of John Irelands point FC did step into the void and got a shit load of money thrown at them for doing it. They made a huge fuss over the seven stanes during the "boom years" and plonked trails in all corners of the world, including some bizarrely obscure and off-beat places such as the balnain bike park. Now they have woken up to the reality of the situation and all the liability issues, maintenance and all that other stuff thatthey should have thought of at the start and they are reversing out of the situ as fast as they can. Johns comments at the conference you were at sum it up – it was their idea until they realised they were on their own, now they want to offload the responsibility onto others.

if you build a boat, you are known as a boat builder so its not hard to see why many people view the FC as a "provider"

Coupling that with the fact that they are still a government body and should be accountable and transparent with taxpayers money and you can see why spending £10m on a visitor centre thats built on land they bought for 1/2 million in 2008, when they have an entire forest next door, seems a bit fishy.

If there ends up being a choice between The Hub and another café…

Thats really the Rub MrsT – the forestry commission went all location, location, location and bought up every property in the surrounding area for several hundred thousand pounds, specifically so there would be nowhere to compete from! I cannot remember the specifics, but those who haunt the FCS board meeting minutes will no doubt point out this cynical act of burning taxpayers cash protecting their £10 million white elephant.

@jamie my money is on mark – he has the bombers, but only a 2006 model in mint green with a 1.5" steerer. They are heavily reduced though.

at least the OP can't complain they aren't reading his emails – this is like a soap opera. I wonder what frank will say?

nope, sorry, only a few years ago i was involved with a chairlift project: £2million, brand new, high speed, etc.

You weren't buying from this man by any chance?

I certainly hope your investors got a more in depth pitch that we just did.

Slightly off-topic but its relevant so i'll proceed. If you want to see how the FC (mis)managed the tendering process for a catering application for CV, fill yer boots. 2008 april-july

How not to run a tendering exercise, a book by FCS lowlands

if thats a troll its good, well executed..

(which cost £7million! Some mistake surely!)

yup, I think the current costs are running at 9 million…

story here, including a response from the hub girls.

looky looky

I saw the thread title and immediately thought of the scene from family guy. Had me in tears.

how much firepower would it take from below to repel the zombie? I'm thinking lie on your back with 6 shotguns pointing straight up. if nothing else it might impale him and leave you in a zombie/shotgun prison.

@mrnutt would your friend need a hard hat in case of falling objects?

yeah, c.15 quid for the full bhoona isn't too bad. time to test it and see if it can get me home 🙂

just downloading it now. looks like postcode nav is an add-on in app though?

mrnutt – tried navigon? will def need someting on iphone to replace nokia maps, which i found was a good app.

i see both sides of the argument here as an employee facing a ballot for strike action because of pension cuts in our workplace.

I have heard the line "if you dont like it then leave" iterated by a senior manager here as a justification for the changes they are making and frankly it annoys me. Whats next, no more paid hols, a 1% pay cut, then 5%, then 10% etc? Work for a pound a day. No? Well if you dont like it then leave – its an extreme example but i hope you see my point.

As TJ alluded to the market economy should be a balance – fair reward for your skills. If those skills are valuable to an employer you should be rewarded for offering them the chance to make money out of you.

also, if you do end up stumping up for it make sure he knows in no uncertain terms that he better take a good look at the car and find whatever else might be wrong with it now so he can save for the repair bills later, because you are finished with helping him on it. in fact reflecting on it a bit more i'd find it hard to speak to the guy again for a long time after something like this…

i agree with the consensus here, especially following the revelation that he got it at well below book value. i know he's a mate and putting myself in the same position it would be hard, but i'd politely remind him that the grand he saved on book value is in his pocket, not yours. if you must go 50:50 but if he persists for 2/3 cut your losses on this guy and tell him to sort it himself.

a dilemma indeed.

dont grab too hard kylie, you might get some feedback.

furry mike? no problem love, just whip the cover back and its bald underneath.

ask the big red phone box thats been following you all week. thats right, the one over your right shoulder..

maybe the dvd was in your back pocket when you happy slapped it to prove thats the ADSA price…

trust HRMC to make it so easy to work out.

Tax doesn't have to be taxing.

But it is.