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Woodland Trust launches petition against T In The Park move

By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 27 March 2015

The Woodland Trust has launched a petition against T In The Park’s planned move to the Strathallan Estate.

As previously reported, Perth And Kinross Council is still considering promoter DF Concerts’ proposal to move the festival from its long-term home at Balado in Kinross to Strathallan Castle in Perthshire. During a consultation period, the council received 523 submissions, with slightly more against than for T setting up home at the proposed new site. The Woodland Trust and RSPB were amongst the parties against the move.

This week, The Woodland Trust launched a petition to gain support for its campaign against the festival taking place on the Strathallan Estate.

In a statement, the Trust said: “T In The Park is Scotland’s biggest music festival, attracting 85,000 people every year. That’s 85,000 people’s worth of noise, light, litter and general disturbance, which would drive many rare species away from the woodland at Strathallan Estate”.

In continued: “Promoter DF Concerts identified the estate as their preferred site to host T In The Park in July. However the area is surrounded by old, rich woodland used by bats, otters, red squirrels and birds (including ospreys, skylarks and kingfishers). A massive festival is just what the woodland and wildlife doesn’t need”.

Noting that the local council report showed that the Estate was, in fact, “twelfth of the fourteen options identified” by DF Concerts as potential new sites, it is calling on the public to sign its petition to convince the council that “it is an unsuitable area for an event of T In The Park’s magnitude to be held – the impact on precious wildlife is simply too damaging”.

DF Concerts has previously said that it will “robustly address” all concerns put forward.