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I have a question on zoning. It is always good to have specific recommendations from witnesses rather than generalised commentary. I will take capercaillie as an example. There has traditionally been a capercaillie population in Strathspey. How big would the zones be? Can you expand on how the extent of the zoning would be assessed? Would it be helpful if local gamekeepers were part of the process and they helped to identify which areas should be subject to the measure and controlled? Should there be a requirement that gamekeepers are consulted so that we get the right areas zoned?

Gamekeepers could not only carry out the control but also be key advisers, given the work that they do on the ground. Am I right to say that only they have that knowledge as those who criticise predator control, unlike you, tend not to work in the countryside? Keepers would not only do the work but be instrumental in guiding the policy and shaping which areas need to be zoned in order to protect the songbirds, capercaillie and other species that are at risk, which might otherwise become extinct.

I respectfully agree that I do not think that a site visit is required or that we should take oral evidence from Transport Scotland. However, there appears to be a slight conflict in the evidence on exactly what analysis Transport Scotland has carried out on the apparent high road option. My impression on rereading the correspondence and submissions is that Transport Scotland has carried out some analytical work on the option and has concluded that it is not practical. I think that clarification of that in a letter would be very useful.

I would also like Transport Scotland to confirm how much a STAG report would cost, how long it would take and whether it thinks that it might delay the project further. Despite the objections that the petitioners have very sincerely set out, the fact is that a far greater number of people on the west coast—in Oban and Fort William—use this route as their link with the world and the Tarbet to Inverarnan stretch is arguably the worst section of an A-road in Scotland. There are routinely accidents, delays, damage to wing mirrors and so on, and I think that many people feel anxious about driving that section, as I did for many years when I represented Lochaber. A huge number of people want the A82 to become a proper road, so, while respecting the petitioner’s wishes, I think that it is useful to put that on the record out of a sense of balance.

I think that the witnesses from whom we heard—Mr Cook, Mr Barnett and Alison Dickie—indicated that one of the problems with public inquiries is that they take such a long time and that part of the rationale for having the proposed whistleblowing service that they advocate is that things can happen at the time, not after the kids concerned become adults when, frankly, the events will have long drifted out of the memory of those involved. Could we in writing to the children’s commissioner draw that specific point to the commissioner’s attention? After all, it does seem to be a gap. We could draw it to the minister’s attention, too, because if the point is not granted and dealt with, I do not think that we will have made much progress with this petition.

I just wanted to make the point, convener, because it was made in the evidence that we heard.

Can you confirm that there is predator control in Teesdale but not in Langholm?

You think there should be an element of financial provision that would allow more predator control, which in turn would protect species at risk, such lapwing, curlew, plover, capercaillie and so on.

Despite tens of millions of pounds having been blown on this already. Has it been completely wasted? Is that the case?

I am rereading the evidence from Will Linden of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and Emily Beever of No Knives, Better Lives, at column 15 in the Official Report of our 21 February session.

Will Linden and Emily Beever both referred to the value of schemes such as cashback for communities and schemes provided by grass-roots organisations. Emily Beever said that the cashback programme has recently changed and shifted money away from some of the smaller grass-roots organisations and that there is uncertainty about the longevity of funding across the third sector generally—funding is from year to year rather than longer. Will Linden echoed and supported Emily Beever, stressing the difficulty for third-sector and community organisations. I know that this is a difficult area. It is not always clear who is ultimately responsible for ensuring the survival of such schemes.

Along with the evidence that Mr Torrance has quite rightly sought, can we ask the Minister for Victims and Community Safety to set out what is being done to ensure that the work of those voluntary and third-sector organisations is better funded on a long-term basis and valued? From my recollection of my time in that ministerial role—admittedly, it was a considerable time ago—much of the work that those organisations do helps to turn around young people who otherwise are on the cusp of more serious offending.

I was thinking that the specific action that the petitioner seeks from us is not one that can readily be accommodated. Nonetheless, general questions are raised about the circumstances in which an events body that seeks to hire land gets a blank refusal from local authorities. Why is that? What is the rationale behind it? More information, therefore, would be useful. I appreciate that we do not wish to trespass on the Verity house agreement and local authorities’ responsibilities, but I think that reasonable questions have been asked by the petitioner. I would be reluctant at this fairly early stage to close the petition without at least doing justice to the petitioner by trying to pursue the queries.

Therefore, we should write to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, the Association for Public Service Excellence and EventScotland—the VisitScotland directorate that supports Scotland’s events industry—seeking their views on the petition and the action that it calls for, including any guidance that they provide to local authorities about developing policies for the hire of public land. In addition to that, it would be useful to see whether there are any private sector tourism bodies that could assist us in providing useful information—I am not quite sure from whom we might obtain that, but possibly the Scottish Tourism Alliance.

We all want events to be displayed on public land. Local authorities are under a lot of pressure in various ways with funding and so on, but the petitioner raises a reasonable question. Therefore, I would be reluctant to just close down the petition without making some effort to get closer to understanding whether there is a problem with reasonable requests routinely being turned down peremptorily by local authorities.

Longer-term funding is needed, because year-to-year funding is the death knell of schemes given that, by definition, it takes longer than a year to do anything worth while, by and large.

I do not know whether Inspector Watters wants to answer the question about what the police role is or should be. What more could the police do, if anything, on diversionary activity?