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Cash boost for forest roads
Page 18
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Scottish timber hauliers are to benefit from a major investment in forest access roads. Guy Sheppard reports.
THE SCOTTISH TIMBER industry has won £13m of Government funding to improve access to isolated plantations and reduce the impact of timber haulage on rural communities.
As well as expanding the network of forest roads the cash will be used to upgrade public roads used by timber trucks and to encourage timber transporters to use rail and sea routes.
The funding, spread over three years, will be formally announced at the Timber Transport Conference on 27 October.
Timber production in the region is projected to double to 10 million tonnes a year by 2020 but John Millar, whose Dumfries-based timber haulage business runs 20 trucks, says some plantations are in danger of being 'landlocked' because access is so poor.
"A lot of timber was planted in the 1970s and now we need to get it to market," he explains. "This money will help to improve some bad j unctions. corners, bridges and maybe even bypasses."
Anne Angus, project manager for the Timber Transport Forum, says the industry originally asked for £10m a year to be spent on transport infrastructure improvements (CM 22 January).
"I think to get anything we have done well," he adds. "We have to try and use this money to demonstrate what we can do with it."
A study is being undertaken to establish whether similar investment on infrastructure improvements are needed in Wales.