ASSOCIATION FOR THE PRESERVATION OF RURAL SCOTLAND (A.P.R.S.)
OFFICE-BEARERS
Honorary President .. SIR JOHN STIRLING MAXWELL, Bt., K.T.
President .. THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF HADDINGTON, M.C.
Vice-President. .. SIR IAIN COLQUHOUN, Bt., of Luss, K.T., D.S.O.
Chairman of Council. .. . THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF GALLOWAY
Vice-Chairman of Council .. COLONEL SIR J. D. RAMSAY, Bt., of Bamff, M.V.O., F.S.I.
Joint Honorary Secretaries. .. F. C. MEARS, P.R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A. ; LESLIE GRAHAME-THOMSON, A.R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.
Honorary Treasurer. .. . A. B. SPENS, O.B.E., C.A.
Honorary Vice-Treasurer .. H. A. RENDEL GOVAN, A.R.I.B.A., A.M.T.P.I.
Organising Secretary .. EDWARD MCGEGAN
Office: 44 QUEEN STREET, EDINBURGH 2
Telephone: 30317
ANNUAL REPORT, 1945
THE Council have pleasure in submitting the Annual Report of the Association, together with a Statement of Finances for the year ended 31st December 1944.
Cordial thanks are again due to the Office-bearers of the Association for their personal services during the course of the past year.
The deaths of the following members of the Council are recorded with deep regret: Professor F. G. Baily, Sir Henry Fairfax-Lucy, Bt., Mr W. J. Gibson, Mr J. Inch Morrison, The Right Hon. Lord Polwarth, Mr Peter Thomsen.
Professor Baily was one of the founder-members of the Association and acted as Honorary Treasurer for fourteen years. Both he and Mr Thomsen had rendered invaluable services to the Association, especially in connection with hydro-electric matters and the movement for the provision of National Parks. Lord Polwarth, Sir Henry Fairfax-Lucy and Mr Thomsen had been members of the Council since 1929.
The affiliation of the Scottish Caravan Club and the Scottish Travel Association is welcomed.
By courtesy of the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland the monthly meetings of the Council have been held as for some years past at 15 Rutland Square, Edinburgh, and the Council desire to express again their cordial thanks to the Royal Incorporation for this facility.
The Press has to be warmly thanked for its interest in the objects and work of the Association.
Owing to restrictions on the use of paper the Report this year is necessarily very brief.
HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE HIGHLANDS
The projects of the North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board, which was appointed under the Hydro-Electric Development (Scotland) Act, 1943, have provided the main business for consideration by the Council since July 1944. Up to the moment of writing this Report the Board have issued three Constructional Schemes. The first scheme, issued in June 1944, included three projects-Loch Sloy, Loch Morar and Lochalsh; the second, issued in February 1945, included two projects-Tummel-Garry and Gairloch; the third, issued in April 1945, dealt with one project only-Fannich. All these projects were given prolonged and careful consideration by the Council and the Council’s Hydro-Electric Committee. The Council decided that no objections should be made to the Morar, Lochalsh and Gairloch projects; that certain objections to the Loch Sloy project and the Fannich project should be submitted to the Secretary of State for Scotland, the Board, and the Amenity and Fisheries Committees set up under the Act, but that an inquiry into these projects should not be requested; and that the Council should not only lodge objections to the Tummel-Garry project but should press for an inquiry into it. The Morar, Lochalsh and Gairloch projects have now been confirmed, and the Loch Sloy project, after an inquiry, has also been confirmed and constructional work on the project has now been begun.
The Tummel-Garry project aroused very great interest and opposition throughout the country. It was, in fact, widely regarded as a test case, the ultimate decision as to which would largely determine whether the Highlands were to be exploited for the export of hydro-electric power or to be developed primarily for the benefit of the Highland people. The project was the subject of a ten-days’ inquiry before three Commissioners sitting in Edinburgh from 25th April to 5th May. The Association was represented at the inquiry. As the Report of the Commissioners has not yet been issued it would be inadvisable to make any further reference to this in the Annual Report, the matter still being sub judice.
In February 1945 the Council issued an appeal for a special Hydro-Electric Fund to enable the Association to exercise proper vigilance and to present its case at inquiries into projects which it might decide to oppose. The appeal was issued privately, but it has evoked an excellent response. The Fund will be used at the full discretion of the Council of the Association to meet any expenses incurred in any inquiries or opposition which the Council decide to make on any proposed scheme or schemes.
In view of the vital importance of the kind of hydro-electric development which is being carried out now and may be carried out in the future and its relation to the development and the well-being of the Highlands in part and as a whole, the Council would remind members of the policy of the Association which was defined in 1939 as follows:-
“Their attitude towards hydro-electric developments in the Highlands is not negative, but essentially constructive. . . . Their attitude towards developments which are undoubtedly beneficial to the district concerned or desirable from a national point of view is directed to ensuring that any harm done to scenery and other amenities is as small as possible. But they claim the right to examine the evidence brought forward in support of any scheme and to form an opinion on its merits.”
That policy is still adhered to.
NATIONAL PARKS
The Scottish Council for National Parks, which was formed on the initiative of the Council of the A.P.R.S., completed the third year of its activities in April 1945. In its Annual Report the Council draws attention to the publication of two important Reports and expresses the hope that, as a result of these Reports, “a great impetus will be given towards the setting up of National Parks as a part of State-planning policy and that a first instalment of National Parks will be found in being at an early date.’ One of these Reports, published in May 1945, is the Report of a Committee set up by the Secretary of State for Scotland, under the chairmanship of Sir Douglas Ramsay, to advise on areas in Scotland suitable for National Parks and to supervise a survey made with that end in view. The other, published in April 1945, is a Report by Mr John Dower to the Minister of Town and Country Planning on the establishment of National Parks in England and Wales. Both Reports are published by H.M. Stationery Office at 6d. and 1s. respectively. Attention may also be drawn to the publication (H.M.S.O., price 9d.) in February 1945 of the Report of the National Forest Park Committee, of which Lord Galloway and Lord Keith are members, on the proposed Forest Park at Glentrool. The Report recommends that the Forestry Commissioners’ property of Glentrool, together with the forests of Kirroughtree and Cairn Edward, be developed as a National Forest Park. The Organising Secretary of the A.P.R.S. is Secretary of the Scottish Council for National Parks.
GENERAL
The general activities of the Association have been continued whenever possible, and action has been taken in a number of cases concerning the preservation and improvement of amenities.
During the past six years of war conditions such activities as the preservation of amenities in connection with housing schemes and road construction, the regulation of outdoor advertising and the prevention of the pollution of rivers, which formerly occupied much of the Council’s attention, have inevitably been greatly reduced. The regulation of outdoor advertising was recently the subject of an important debate in the House of Lords in which it was emphasised that as a very large number of such advertisements had disappeared since the war began it was of vital importance that adequate measures of regulation should be established before the problem could again become acute. The increasingly polluted condition of many of our rivers has frequently been referred to in the Press, and it points to the urgent need to amend radically the existing legislation and powers for dealing with the evil, a matter to which the Council was giving close attention before the outbreak of war. The vast projected programmes of housing and road construction and many of the problems involved in the return of the country from war-time to peace-time conditions will also present the Association with many opportunities for the exercise of activities which fall within its constitution. The Council are anxious that they should have the fullest possible support from members of the Association in dealing with these matters. They would therefore ask members to inform the Organising Secretary of cases in which the Association might be of service.
BRANCHES
When war broke out in 1939 detailed plans for the formation of several new branches of the Association were in an advanced stage but had necessarily to be suspended. The Council feel that the time is now opportune not only to revive these plans but to add to them. The Association has at present only seven branches-Border, Cowal, Dumfriesshire, Galloway, Inverness-shire, Moray and Nairn, Stirling and District-but the Council are convinced that the most effective way of extending and consolidating the activities and the influence of the Association is the establishment of branches in close co-operation with the central office. The first areas in which it is hoped to form branches are Perthshire, Fife, Ayrshire, and East Lothian. The Council would urge members in these Counties to give all the help they can towards this end.
The Council tender their thanks to the Officers and members of the branches, and would urge them to do all that they can to maintain the organisation which has been built up.
Statement of Accounts for the year to 31st December 1944
[see pdf file]
Report to the Members of the Association for the Preservation of Rural Scotland
We have examined the above Balance Sheet with the Books and Accounts of the Association for the Preservation of Rural Scotland, and have obtained all the information and explanations we have required. We have not examined the Membership Roll Books of the Association. Subject to the foregoing note, we report that, in our opinion, such Balance Sheet is properly drawn up so as to exhibit a true and correct view of the state of the Association’s affairs according to the best of our information and the explanations given to us and as shown by the Books of the Association.
21 RUTLAND STREET, EDINBURGH.
23rd June 1945.
WHITSON & METHUEN, C.A., Honorary Auditors.
FINANCES
The Council are gratified that the accounts for the year 1944 show a surplus of £260. This satisfactory result, however, is not due to any increase in the regular income of the Association, but is the result of an emergency appeal for increased financial support which the Council issued to all members in September 1944. This appeal has brought in a total of £550 at the date of writing this Report, chiefly in donations and Life Membership subscriptions. The Council cordially thank all those who subscribed to the appeal, and they also gratefully acknowledge the generosity of a few members who paid off the deficit of £90 on the accounts for 1943.
The great need of the Association is for a large increase in the number of annual members. Without that the Association will not be able to carry out efficiently the many services which it will undoubtedly be called upon to give in the very near future, during the transition of the country from war-time to peace-time conditions. The Council therefore again earnestly urge all members to help by getting at least one friend and as many more as possible to join the Association.
The Council record their deep appreciation of the generous assistance given by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust.
NEILL & CO., LTD., EDINBURGH
If undelivered return to
The Association for the Preservation of Rural Scotland, 44 Queen Street, Edinburgh.
ANNUAL MEETING, 1945
Your presence will be welcome at the Annual Meeting of the Association to be held in the Royal Arch Hall, 75 Queen Street, Edinburgh, on Wednesday, 11th July, at 3 p.m.
The Annual Report of the Association, including a statement of finances, is printed overleaf.
The Right Hon. The Earl of Haddington, M.C., will preside.
F. C. MEARS
Hon. Secretary