Seòmar agus comataidhean

Before I bring in Maria de la Torre, Karen, I note that you mentioned large infrastructure projects. Do you get funding for those projects from the Robertson Trust and the National Lottery Community Fund?

Putting all those pieces together is quite time consuming. Maria wanted to respond to the question.

The next item on our agenda is consideration of evidence on the impact of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 on allotments and community food growing. This is the last of three evidence sessions that the committee is holding as part of its inquiry.

We will discuss the topic today with a panel of witnesses who each submitted a written response to our call for views last month. They represent allotments, community groups and community food growers. Our witnesses are Karen Birch, who is the co-founder and chair of Abundant Borders; Ian Welsh, who is an allotment user; Rosanne Woods from the Tranent Allotment Association; and Maria de la Torre, who is the chair of Knocknagael Ltd. I welcome all our witnesses to the meeting; Karen, Ian and Maria are joining us remotely. For the record, I highlight that, as an MSP, I have recently been supporting Knocknagael Ltd in using the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 to transfer land from the Scottish Government.

It would be helpful if members would direct their questions to a specific witness where possible, although I will be happy to bring in other witnesses who wish to contribute. If a witness wishes to comment, they should indicate their desire to do so to me or the clerk and I will bring them in at an appropriate point. Karen, Ian and Maria, please type an R in the BlueJeans chat function to indicate your desire to come in.

I open the session to questions from members, and I will begin. The first theme is on costs and benefits, and I will start with a broad question about barriers to accessing allotments. Throughout our evidence sessions and site visits, we have seen the challenges that allotment owners and associations have faced and overcome; likewise, we have heard about challenges that local authorities have faced in providing allotments. Identifying barriers to access is a crucially important part of the post-legislative scrutiny that the committee is undertaking. Given that, I am keen to hear your experiences of what the main barriers to accessing allotments and community growing spaces are. I will start with Ian and then go to Rosanne.

I had a question for Duncan Orr-Ewing, but you have responded to most of it in answer to the convener’s questions, so I will ask a follow-up question.

The bill proposes a licensing scheme for using more than two dogs for wildlife control purposes, and individual landowners, farmers and organisations will be able to apply for those licences. However, I am aware that, for some predators, including species such as mink, control measures are efficacious in the long term only if they are done at a landscape scale. How could the approach to species control be improved? Could we take an alternative approach to simply allowing greater numbers of dogs to be used by licence holders in their local area?

The bill includes an exception for environmental benefit, which would allow, with a licence, the use of two or more dogs for purposes such as eradication of invasive non-native species. However, can you tell me about the environmental harm that can be caused by bringing dogs into an area where, for example, there are ground-nesting birds? That question is for Duncan Orr-Ewing.

I hear what you say about the way in which the dog is worked, but how often does a dog attack a fox underground?

I have been made aware of evidence that terriers that do terrier work have scars on their faces. Surely if you put a dog that is in hunt mode underground and it comes up against a fox, they must come into contact. What is the difference between putting two dogs against each other above ground, which is illegal, and putting a terrier underground against a fox in a highly stressful situation?

How do you prevent the dog from attacking the fox underground?

Ross Macleod, do you want to come in on that?

I have a follow-up question for Duncan Orr-Ewing. Should we give more thought to the environmental benefit that wild mammals, such as foxes and badgers, contribute to an area, such as how their digging in the soil contributes to nutrient recycling and moisture retention, helping to prevent flooding and drought and creating habitats for other animals?