Helping you make the right connection

The positivity “ towards integration shows that a scheme to support integration on upland farms has the potential to be successful.

overcome the practical barriers has the potential to provide positive benefits for all involved.

The poor uptake of the Sheep and Trees initiative shows the importance of funding being focussed on the right type of support. There are other grants within the forestry grant scheme which may prove more compatible with the desires of farmers for greater integration. These include the agroforestry initiative which offers capital payments for individually protected trees and support for woodland grazing.

The Galbraith Forestry Team are able to offer support with the design and management of integrated woodland projects at a range of scales. Please contact us for further information. n

Georgina Weston 07909 978 645 georgina.weston@galbraithgroup.com

Helping you make the right connection

Sitting comfortably in my home “office” I write this alongside the 25 neighbouring properties forming what could be described as a quaint little village found nestled at the foot of the Sidlaw Hills, Perthshire.

Despite the rural location. we are very fortunately only 800m from a long established telephone and internet exchange. The Scottish Government’s target of meeting superfast broadband speeds were easily ticked off the list here. Connectivity to good communication links has been a vital part of our lives over the last two decades especially as technological advances have changed the way that we socially interact and work not to mention adapting to the challenges of 2020. A global shift from capped data allowances on both mobiles and internet service have meant most families utilise unlimited data packages meaning the focus is now purely around price and speed. Time after all is money and there are doubtless many frustrated people sitting at home behind their makeshift desks cursing slow download speeds. How many of us have been somewhere remote and either leaned out the window or climbed the nearest rock to stand on one leg to try and get signal? Galbraith currently acts as an advisor to three separate utilities companies who are leading the provision of superfast broadband cabinets, electricity and water connections. Our advice generally relates to securing the rights required over third party land to achieve these connections and deal with the ensuing reinstatement or financial compensation. Equally, we assist hundreds of clients with their own issues of connectivity for rural estate properties and manage telecoms mast portfolios. However, as our agency department continues to deal with daily inquiries from prospective buyers and sellers in rural areas (although this time with more emphasis on possible office space!), there will no doubt be greater due diligence carried out on service connectivity. Whilst a lot of this information can be found online, there are some aspects that are a little harder to determine. Galbraith has vast experience of dealing with the practicalities of connectivity issues having advised on electricity connection routes, negotiated wayleave with neighbours, assisted with water borehole establishment but also helping spread fibre broadband throughout Scotland. Whilst the Scottish government states that they have met their target of 95% of premises having 24Mbps by 2017 this remains below the superfast “30MBps”. In our experience, we have found that, despite the apparent proximity of services if you are looking to establish new connections for your property, this can be far from straightforward and could involve paying all or part of a share to improve the network capacity before this can happen. Thankfully, this isn’t news to us and we have worked alongside many other experts with the necessary engineering expertise to provide bespoke alternatives to assist with off grid resources including microgeneration which has an added appeal as we each strive to decrease our carbon footprints. n

Nick Morgan 07717 227 404 nick.morgan@galbraithgroup.com