Latest news with #Maclennan
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Officials take drastic action to wipe out fast-spreading species threatening key region: 'Total removal is feasible'
An initiative to remove the invasive American mink from Scotland's Outer Hebrides is giving native birds a better chance to thrive, NatureScot reported. The newly funded effort, called Saving Nature Outer Hebrides, has secured £94,000 from the Scottish government's Nature Restoration Fund to create a plan for complete mink removal. This work builds on the successful Hebridean Mink Project, which has lowered mink numbers since it began in 2001. When American mink got loose from fur farms set up in the 1950s, they started appearing throughout the island chain. These nonnative hunters often kill more prey than they need, harming ground-nesting bird populations in a region internationally known for its wildlife. The area includes five Special Protection Areas covering about 150 square kilometers. Since trapping began, tern colonies throughout the area have grown beyond expectations. Various birds, including water birds, shore birds, and waterfowl, have increased in population, creating richer biodiversity and more opportunities for wildlife tourism. Fewer mink means young salmon and sea trout face less danger, keeping waterways healthier. Local farmers can raise chickens and ducks with less worry, and fish farms experience less damage to their stocks. "Thanks to the prolonged efforts of the Hebridean Mink Project, the mink population in the Outer Hebrides has been reduced to extremely low levels with significant positive consequences for ground nesting birds," said David Maclennan, NatureScot's head of operations for West Scotland. If you want to make a difference in your area and create habitat friendly to native birds and other animals, try installing native plants. Native vegetation provides food and shelter for local wildlife and requires less watering and maintenance than exotic species. By replacing even a portion of your yard with native wildflowers, grasses, or shrubs, you help create corridors that allow birds and pollinators to thrive in urban and suburban landscapes. Despite bringing mink numbers down dramatically — from being common to just seven animals caught in Lewis and Harris in 2016 — total elimination remains challenging. The new project unites NatureScot, the local government of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, and community land groups to finish the task. "We believe that while it will be challenging, total removal is feasible and in the long term offers both the most effective protection for our native wildlife and the most cost-effective solution to the problem," Maclennan added. Kevin Adams of Community Land Outer Hebrides expressed his organization's support: "We are delighted to be partnering on this vital programme. The protection of our unique landscape in the Outer Hebrides is one of the top priorities for our members." Should we be actively working to kill invasive species? Absolutely It depends on the species I don't know No — leave nature alone Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
The Herald Scotland
12-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Call for 'disruptive' change in Scottish housing system
However, a new report by the David Hume Institute found the label had "limitations" and is calling for a more "bold, disruptive change". As reported by The Scotsman, the report warns Scotland's housing is 'at the edge of a precipice to an even bleaker future' and should be treated as essential economic infrastructure on a par with transport, energy and digital connectivity, with overhauls of land reform and the planning system. Read More: Professor Duncan Maclennan of the University of Glasgow, who authored the report, said there was 'little recognition that successive cohorts of over-50s households have been giving the under-30s a housing 'haircut' for the last half century'. The report notes that home ownership rates are falling for every age bracket under 50, with more electoral wards and parliamentary constituencies are moving towards electorates with a majority of renters. Titled 'Prosperity begins at home: Scottish housing policies for faster, fairer economic growth', the report states that housing policy by both the Scottish Government and the UK Government has "lost any coherence", with private landlords plugging gaps in provision but also subject to increasing controls. Professor Maclennan told The Scotsman: "Without a step-change in approach, Scotland will see worsening housing unaffordability, declining regional cohesion, and underperformance in key sectors of its economy. "More and more households will be priced out of opportunity, while communities continue to struggle with poor-quality homes and fraying infrastructure.'
Scotsman
12-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Declaring a housing emergency is well and good - but real action is desperately needed
Sign up to our Politics newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Edinburgh and Glasgow are among locations that have applied the warning label to the issue. But acknowledging the situation is only really the first step to actually dealing with the problem. Genuine action on the ground is desperately needed. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad As Professor Duncan Maclennan writes in today's Scotsman, persisting with the status quo will only lead to worsening housing affordability. Looking out across Edinburgh from Calton Hill 'Home ownership rates in Scotland are now falling for every age decile under 50 and more electoral wards and parliamentary constituencies are moving towards electorates with a majority of renters rather than owner-occupiers,' he writes. The Scottish Government last year announced in its Budget that it was investing £768 million in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme in 2025‑26. The investment was welcome. However, it also did little more than simply reverse the previous near £200m cut to the affordable housing budget. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Young people are struggling to get on the housing ladder, particularly in dense urban locations such as Edinburgh. According to Office for National Statistics figures, first-time buyers spent on average around 8 per cent more on their first home in Edinburgh at the start of this year compared to 2024 – and a lack of housing supply will only continue to drive up prices. Creative, out-of-the-box thinking is now required – or 'disruptive reform', as Prof Maclennan describes it. Amongst his proposals, the economist suggest tax initiatives aimed at those who hold the housing wealth. While greater taxation would not be widely popular, the proposal could be used as a jumping-off point to practically work out how to guarantee future generations access the housing market.
Scotsman
12-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
'Disruptive' change needed to Scotland's housing system, leading economist warns
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The use and taxation of housing wealth across Scotland will need to be reassessed to 'rebalance' the nation's housing system and economy, according to a new report that calls for a major 'disruption' to existing policies. The analysis, published by the David Hume Institute, advocates a significant shake-up in how housing strategies are shaped, to reduce inequality and secure long-term economic growth. The report cautions that persisting with the status quo will only lead to worsening affordability and a decline in regional cohesion. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Leading housing economist Professor Duncan Maclennan, the author of the report, said the nation's housing system was in crisis and 'at the edge of a precipice to an even bleaker future'. He criticised the long-standing focus on housing policy as a social welfare issue that was 'largely siloed' from the broader economic agenda. Spelling out the need for 'bold, disruptive change', Prof Maclennan said housing should be treated going forward not merely as a 'social good', but as essential economic infrastructure on a par with transport, energy and digital connectivity, with overhauls of land reform and the planning system. dinburgh became the first city in Scotland to declare an official housing emergency, amid a growing number of homeless people, a shortage of social rented accommodation and soaring rents in the private council called for more funding from the Scottish Government and committed to co-operate with outside organisations to build an emergency action plan to tackle the Capital's housing crisis. | PA The emeritus professor in urban economics at University of Glasgow said housing wealth was among the key issues that had to be addressed by policymakers. Drawing a comparison with the protests surrounding touts selling tickets for the Oasis concerts in Edinburgh this summer at hugely inflated prices, Prof Maclennan said there was 'little recognition that successive cohorts of over-50s households have been giving the under-30s a housing 'haircut' for the last half century'. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'Someday, to rebalance the Scottish housing system and economy, the role of housing wealth, and how it might be used and taxed, will need to be reassessed unless real house price inflation withers away,' his report states. Prof Maclennan said while there was not yet any 'real momentum' in the Scottish political economy to address the accumulation, uses and consequences of housing wealth, the issue ought to be viewed as a 'major' concern for Scottish economic policy over the next decade. 'Home ownership rates in Scotland are now falling for every age decile under 50 and more electoral wards and parliamentary constituencies are moving towards electorates with a majority of renters rather than owner occupiers,' he noted. 'Allied to the discontent of the 'left behind', sorted by the housing system into particular localities, the failure to address the roots of the 'troublesome trinity' will only exacerbate the current crises in the Scottish housing system.' Professor Duncan Maclennan | Contributed The report, entitled 'Prosperity begins at home: Scottish housing policies for faster, fairer economic growth', stresses the need to 'rethink what housing is and does' for wider wellbeing across the country. 'Reshaping the Scottish housing system to deliver faster, fairer and greener growth is, given the depths of the crises, a long and difficult journey,' the report states. 'It is time to start.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The analysis accuses housing policy at both Edinburgh and Westminster of having 'lost any coherence', noting the private rental sector has 'filled the gaps' in provision, but now faces unclear control proposals that are diminishing new investment. 'This approach does not add up and it does not offer a coherent system of governance for exiting the housing crisis that is, in mid-2025, still deepening,' Prof Maclennan said. 'With an inadequacy of public resources to halt deterioration in housing outcomes, let alone remedy them, major, not marginal, change in how Scotland understands and manages the housing system is required. It is time for policy disruption.' His report said while housing was a 'core system' in the Scottish economy, the thinking in the Scottish Government had seen it become a "modest budget managed by a minister without Cabinet rank'. The analysis adds: 'Scottish policy has little sense that housing is essential economic, social and environmental infrastructure.' The report also criticises the approach to housing in rural areas. 'It is becoming blindingly obvious that an inability to think about the limits of housing market information and the inadequacy of housing planning for thin rural housing markets has needlessly denuded rural localities of younger and skilled workers,' it hits out. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'That market failure has remained unrecognised in housing policy and planning since Scottish Homes/Communities Scotland were abolished two decades ago.' The report also scrutinises the decision by a dozen local authorities to declare a housing emergency, describing the label as having 'limitations' in the face of wider pressures. 'It has the implications that difficulties have arisen suddenly in an unanticipated way, and that heralding the emergency will induce more rapid resource support from others and usher in the onset of crisis resolution,' the analysis said. 'However, fiscal constraints aside, this is unlikely.' Outlining the shift in housing policy that is required, Prof Maclennan called for a 'rapid consolidation and strengthening' of 'scattered and inadequate' evidence to inform policy choices, with a new 'whole of government' approach essential. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He also said there was a need to rethink the way non-profit housing operators operate in rural and small-town Scotland, envisioning such entities as 'cross-sectoral agents for change', and called for ministers to consider future demands for housing and tax arrangements for the sector. In an accompanying op-ed piece, published in today's The Scotsman, Prof Maclennan said the cost of 'inertia' was clear.
Press and Journal
22-04-2025
- Press and Journal
Woman who attacked off-duty Inverness police officer spared jail
A woman attacked an off-duty policewoman on an Inverness street, leaving her unable to work for three days. Demi Maclennan dragged the officer to the ground and repeatedly struck her. At one point during the vicious assault, McLennan clawed inside the officer's mouth. When she was taken to the police station, she made offensive racial comments towards another officer. Maclennan, 29, appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court having previously admitted a charge of assault to injury as well as one of racially aggravated threatening or abusive behaviour. Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that on December 29 2023 the officer had finished her shift and was wearing civilian clothing as she walked to her car along Church Street. 'She came upon an incident where Miss Maclennan and a number of others were shouting and causing disorder outside some licenced premises,' he said. The court heard the officer was waiting for other police resources when she heard a female scream behind her. 'She went to turn around and felt herself being hit on the back of the head,' the fiscal depute explained. She saw Maclennan in front of her and shouted that she was a police officer, but was dragged to the ground where she was repeatedly struck and scratched, as well as being kicked to the head. 'At one point, Miss Maclennan inserted her fingers into the officer's mouth and attempted to scratch the inside of her cheek,' Mr Morton told Sheriff Neil Wilson. The court heard that members of the public intervened, and Maclennan was subsequently arrested. The officer suffered scratches to her face and a lump to the side of her head as well as general bruising and was absent from work for three days as a result. Following her arrest Maclennan was taken to Burnett Road Police Station but during a delay where she was required to wait in the police vehicle she begam shouting at the officer, accusing him of being a paedophile. She also told him: 'I don't want to talk to you black man, I want to talk to an English speaking officer.' Solicitor Graham Mann, for Maclennan, told the court that his client had become involved and 'escalated the matter way beyond where it should have been'. He said it had come as a real 'embarrassment' to Maclennan, adding: 'She has never behaved like this before.' Sheriff Neil Wilson said: 'This was an unprovoked attack culminating in you kicking somebody to the head. He placed Maclennan, of Union Street, Inverness, on a community payback order with 180 hours of unpaid work in the community. He told her: 'Make no mistake, this is imposed as a direct alternatvie to sentencing you to prison. 'If you do not comply, the matter will be brought back to court, you will be breached, and you will be sent to prison.'
