Referring to my open letter request for information to the Kintyre Way organisers and to their promised reply in the Courier. There was no reply to that letter. No information whatsoever, apart from some vague reassurances, a statement that the Council and others are involved, a reference to a website holding page and a statement that the Way is to be run by a Limited Company (a Limited Company only provides protection for the directors and investors, by the way, it actually removes protection from the public or anyone else).
Anyway, that’s getting away from the main points, of which there are three:-
1. The running of the campaign.
From one point of view, it has been a textbook operation. From another, a disaster.
Was the task to get a contentious issue past any possible opposition - not to tell anyone any details - ignore all those who might discuss the matter independently and not quite fit the chosen line - smooth things over with a few platitudes... then, by the time it’s up and running, it’s too late for anyone to do anything?
Or was the task that of a major public project - which would affect virtually everybody in a given area - which would require funding by public money and which should be the subject of a full and informed public discussion with freely available information on both the positives and the negatives- long before any commitments were made?
Which description do you think fits?
2. The practical thought and preparation.
For the organisers to claim that everyone will meekly get the bus from Campbeltown to Machrihanish, or on any other of the road sections, merely gives an example of just how utterly impractical the thinking is. When a keen walker has completed the 89 mile Kintyre Way, are they really going to want to admit to anyone, or even to themselves that, actually, they got a bus for six miles of it? And this is only one example.
The organisers have refused to give any hard information. So, I shall make some educated guesses. If the organisers know different, then say so. Answer the questions in the open letter. Show us the map.
I must emphasise that, with the complete lack of hard information, much of the following is only guesswork.
After four years of preparation and with less than two months to go till the opening, there is still at least ten percent of the route that is yet to be agreed. The organisers may have fall back routes, but they are currently pressurising farmers to give way in time for the opening. At least one of these farmers has only been very recently approached. In fact, however, the vast majority of farmers that have been asked over the past four years have refused permission. There are serious issues regarding both Public Liability, likely collateral damage and the new rights under the Land Reform Act. It is one thing to have people on land because they have a legal right to be there, but quite another to actually invite them on.
Maintenance. There have been volunteers kindly offering to help with maintenance, but the main staffing provisions consist of one part time or seasonal warden and committed funding is only a relatively few thousand pounds. For an 89 mile long walk. Compare this with the West Highland Way, only six miles longer at 95 miles, where there are numbers of both full time and seasonal staff and the actual annual running costs are in the region of £400,000! It’s still only a path - no different to what is proposed here. How is this one going to be paid for? There seems to be no requirement for the beneficiaries of the path - hotels and such like, to contribute to its maintenance. To paraphrase a current well known advert, the organisers may well be very good at doing the pizzas, but they are obviously leaving it to someone else to do the Math.
Whilst on the subject of the West Highland Way. Looking at their site, I found a new name to contend with - Giardia. Look up
http://www.west-highland-way.co.uk/mainFrame.htm
and click on General Info. Giardia is endemic in other countries and is spreading in this. It’s a very nasty parasitic stomach bug, possibly even fatal if resistance is low, spread by drinking water from areas that have been contaminated by the faeces of a carrier. Or simply from contact with the ground. Or it can be picked up by a pet and brought into the home. People and animals can be carriers without knowing it. As a result of this walk and an almost complete lack of toilet provisions, Giardia is going to become endemic in Kintyre. Check it out for yourself.
Back to the route itself. Of the 89 miles, rather more than a third of the Way is on public roads. That is some thirty miles of road walking much of it single track and/or known for its high speeds. All of it highly dangerous. Are the organisers relying upon some nasty accidents to pressurise adjacent farmers into allowing them to walk over their land?
Regarding the remoter parts of the route, the organisers admit that large areas are not covered by mobile phone signals and that there are no safety provisions to cover those areas, other than our existing and willing - keen, even, but underfunded, search and rescue services (and how they going to know that someone needs rescuing?). Whilst the organisers of the Way fully intend to make as much as they can out of any visitors, as I understand it, there is no provision for supervision (so that someone knows who is out on the hill and when they are due/overdue), nor for them to contribute anything toward the inevitable costs of search and rescue that will result from the Way.
The whole thing is being started in an ill prepared, “It will be all right on the night” sort of way. No real long term provisions, just a hope that it will work out in the end.
3. Benefits.
It is, however, very easy to stand on the sidelines and criticise.
I have to also state that the Way organisers have stuck their necks out and are, potentially, actually coming up with something. Sure, it is probably motivated by their own self interest, but it will bring a number of jobs. Mostly indirectly, but much needed, all the same.
It could also bring in a lot of extra people in to enjoy Kintyre. This would be a real and substantial benefit to each and every one of these visitors.
It could also bring the benefit of paths where there are none. I should certainly use them myself and I’m sure a lot more local people could get access to remoter areas by using them as well.
Conclusion.
If you want to try to get something off the ground but have insufficient resources, then the only way that it might remotely be possible is on a wing and a prayer. This is precisely what the organisers of the Way are doing.
But if what you want to start necessarily involves a whole community (see Iona from Oban’s comments on Sunday 9th April- I feel these give a well balanced view of the situation there), then I think you should do it in the open and only after fully informed discussions with that community. You need to point out the problems as well as the benefits (the letter to the Courier did neither). If the idea really is a good one, then there is nothing to fear from open debate... or from criticism. Indeed, this will probably be the very best avenue for ideas and solutions.
And finally, as the lady from the West Highland Way said at the meeting, how can you take thousands of people into a wilderness, yet keep it a wilderness?.
Thanks for reading this.