More than £7 million will co-finance projects to improve a number of minor rural roads.
More than £7 million of Scottish Government funding is set to increase the levels of community, social and environmental benefit gained from projects that minimise the impact of timber lorries on rural roads.
The 2018 Strategic Timber Transport Fund (STTF), managed by Forestry Commission Scotland, has awarded more than £7 million of co-finance to projects which will improve a number of largely minor rural roads throughout Scotland or take lorries ofithe road with the timber being transported to market by sea. Announcing the funding as part of the agreed Scottish budget for 2018-19, Minister for Rural Affairs and the Natural Environment, Mairi Gougeon, said: ‘Scotland’s burgeoning £1 billion forestry industry produces seven million tonnes of timber every year – a quantity of high quality raw material that is set to increase in coming years.