Letters / Unjustifiable arguments and weak excuses
With regard to your news item in Shetnews on Friday 21 July 2023 – Police taking action after receiving complaint over use of quad bikes on protected beach – the vast majority of comments following the article offered unjustifiable arguments and weak excuses why motor vehicles should be allowed to maraud unchecked on a legally protected seal haul-out beach, when other areas of land can and should be utilised for such motorsport.
They also neglected to recognise the law governing such access under the Land Reform Act 2003, the fact the beach is a conservation area as designated by the Shetland Islands Council, and lastly Scousburgh Sands and the beach is recognised as an area of outstanding natural beauty and was voted one of the best beaches in the whole of Scotland – and is adjacent to the RSPB nature reserve.
It seems to me the protagonists who think motocross and quads should have unlimited access to such pristine stretches of beaches are not only happy to break the law, but obviously have no interest whatsoever in the preservation of these unique areas of natural beauty on a remote island that is one of the last few vestiges in the UK that hasn’t already been totally ruined by human activity.
Once islanders lose such areas of unique natural beauty they will be as guilty as those ‘down south’ who have already neglected and allowed the biodiversity of much of their environment to be annihilated.
Kerry Meyer
Bigton
