Tag: vision for National Parks

September 20, 2023 Nick Kempe 7 comments

Scotland National Parks and the Scottish Government If you want to understand why Scotland’s National Parks have achieved so little in the 20 years since they were created, you need look no further than successive Scottish Governments, both the Ministers responsible and the civil servants that have supported them. Instead of encouraging and empowering our…

July 17, 2023 Nick Kempe 2 comments

The consultation on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s National Park Partnership Plan (NPPP) 2024-29 has been live since 26th April and closes on Wednesday. There have been few responses so far through the online platform “commonplace” (see here) despite the LLTNPA’s attempts to frame the new plan as having a pivotal…

March 3, 2023 Nick Kempe 14 comments

On Wednesday NatureScot, formerly known as Scottish Natural Heritage, issued a news release (see here) about how they had entered a partnership with the Hampden & Co, Lombard Odier Investment Managers and  Palladium (the company that in in a partnership with National Parks across the UK called “Revere).  They described this as: “a ‘national first’…

November 25, 2022 Nick Kempe 2 comments

After the first three questions in NatureScot consultation on National Parks, which are about whether to turn them into vehicles for “green finance” (see here), the fourth is about the role of local communities (see here).  The introductory text to the section claims that our National Parks “provide exemplars of community engagement” but contain no…

June 13, 2022 Nick Kempe 9 comments

Yesterday, running off Ill Bell on the Kentmere horseshoe my daughter glimpsed a raptor landing just to her left and stopped.  I was 10m behind and would have missed it.  A chance in a life time. We watched the peregrine while it occasionally preened.  It was unconcerned by our presence and I wondered at first…

May 26, 2022 Nick Kempe 3 comments

[Apologies, I made an error in my explanation of the law below and have updated this post.  A full understanding of Board membership requires interpretation of the 2000 Parks Act, which is less than clear in this area, and incorporation of the separate designation orders and modification orders for the two Parks] Under the National…

February 28, 2022 Nick Kempe 4 comments

I have been spending a few days in the Lake District National Park where the use of plastic tree tubes appears even more widespread than in Scotland’s National Parks.  A short walk up Raven Crag, above Thirlmere, provides a good illustration of the stupidity of what is going on. (As an aside, everywhere you walk…

December 11, 2019 Nick Kempe 1 comment

While who gets elected in the General Election may in large part be decided by attitudes to Scottish Independence and Brexit, the wider issues facing the world are the ongoing crisis in the capitalism, the climate emergency and the collapse of the natural environment.  Our National Parks are microcosms of that wider world and reflect…

December 6, 2019 Nick Kempe 2 comments

  Fires and National Parks I have been back from Australia two weeks.  Yesterday I checked on the fire that had been burning in the Wollemi National Park when I was out there (see here).  Its still burning. At the end of October, soon after it started, 3400 hectares of the National Park, the second…

October 29, 2019 Nick Kempe 1 comment

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority  held its quarterly Board meeting last Thursday (see here) in Kinlochard Village Hall, in Strathard.   Almost everything about the meeting, from the location to the agenda items to the discussion,  illustrated complacency about the declaration of a climate emergency by the Scottish Government six months ago. …

November 22, 2018 Nick Kempe 7 comments

In the talk I am giving tonight in Kingussie, I will be looking at the recommendations set out in the Report of the Cairngorms Working Party, Common Sense and Sustainability.  This was published in December 1992 and played a key role in the creation of the National Park 10 years later.  While some of its…

June 8, 2018 Nick Kempe No comments exist

Reviewing our National Parks Ten days ago, writing in the Sunday Telegraph (see here) or (see here for Guardian article), the Westminster Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, who currently has no powers to speak of in Scotland, announced a review of National Parks in England chaired by Julian Glover: “The goal of Julian’s review is not…

June 7, 2017 Nick Kempe 1 comment

What has been going on, and going wrong, in Scotland’s two National Parks since they were created has been a microcosm of our society as a whole and I believe reflects the current crisis in capitalism.  Increasing inequality, public authorities whose main purpose is to facilitate business interests (whether through outsourcing services or paving the…

January 9, 2017 Nick Kempe No comments exist

The entire edition of Out of Doors on Saturday was devoted to National Parks, in the USA and Scotland http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087tgv4#play.   This gave critical coverage of our National Parks, in which the presenters Euan McIlraith and Mark Stephen were, in their inimitable style, raising questions about what National Parks should be for.  This is to be…

September 22, 2016 Nick Kempe 1 comment

By coincidence, the above article appeared in the Sunday Herald (in their towns supplement) just a few days after Flamingo Land had been announced as the preferred developer for the west riverside site at Balloch (see here).    The contrast between what Kevin Stewart is saying and what Scottish Enterprise announced is stark: The “solution”…