Robbie Rowantree, one of three councillors for North, West and Central Sutherland, has written to the West Sutherland Deer Management Group asking to attend one of their meetings.

“There is growing concern in the area covered by the West Sutherland Deer Management about the increase in deer activity in and around villages and on the roads that connect our communities,” he told them. “This is no longer confined to the usual winter period, but is now an ever present problem throughout the year.

“I would be grateful for the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Deer Management Group at the earliest opportunity and begin a dialogue about how to manage deer near roads and townships in a way that acknowledges the importance of this valuable asset while at the same time allowing people to travel safely and protect their crofts and gardens.”

Tongue Community Council chairman Allan Mackay confirmed the issue of increasing numbers of deer had been discussed at recent community council meetings. He said a number of deer-related road accidents in the area had been reported over the past few months.

“There have been a few in the last month or two. No one has been hurt and it has just been a case of bumps and scrapes, but the numbers of deer on the road is getting to be a worry,” he said.

Mr Mackay revealed that as well as referring the issue to Councillor Rowantree, the community council had also written to the Deer Commission for Scotland. As a result, Inverness-based representatives from the commission had attended a community council meeting at Tongue last month.

Community councillors have now been asked to help in collating a database by reporting to the commission road accidents or near-misses involving deer on roads in the north and north-west.

The commission’s deer officer for the north, Robbie Kernahan told The Northern Times earlier this week: “We want to keep discussing this issue with community councils and have been up to community council meetings at Kinlochbervie and Lochinver in the last two years as well as more recently at Tongue. What we need from them is data about the frequency of collisions. We’ve asked the community councils to be vigilant and start recording accidents involving deer.”

There are reckoned to be more than 400,000 red deer in Scotland, three times more than 40 years ago. Latest research indicates that between 7000 and 10,000 deer die on the roads every year and as many as 74 people are injured in road accidents involving deer every year, 16 seriously and one or two fatally.

A variety of mitigation measures on main roads considered to be black spots for deer activity are now being tested, including fencing, warning signs, speed limits and reflectors.

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