Following the election of local representatives to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority earlier this year (see here), the end of last week saw the announcement of the new Scottish Government appointees to our National Park Boards. The appointments appear to have attracted little publicity so this post points readers to information…
Month: October 2018
There is no hope for the future of Cairn Gorm while Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) remain as owners of the land on this mountain, while also acting as funders of most of the developments on the upper slopes. This was evident from the time that their predecessor body, Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB),…
In my last post on Cairngorm, in which I called for the Cairngorms National Park Authority to take a proactive role in addressing the issues on the mountain (see here), I stated the problems with the funicular were far greater than Highlands and Islands Enterprise were admitting. That claim was vindicated within a few days. …
The Flamingo Land Planning Application should be central to the debates currently taken place in the Scottish Parliament on a new planning bill. The central question they need to address is how is it that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority could be judged overall winner in the Scottish Quality Awards for…
While the move to develop a tourist tax gathers apace in Edinburgh and is now being advocated for other cities (see here for article by Marianne Taylor in Herald) there continues to be silence on this issue from our National Park Authorities. The issue of inadequate investment in tourist infrastructure in the countryside is as…
If Highlands and Island Enterprise and Natural Retreats fail to fix the funicular this winter that will have a huge impact on skiing at Cairngorm and serious short-term consequences for the local economy. I understand therefore HIE are under huge pressure to act but this should not be at the cost of abandoning all standards…
On the 11th October the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority issued a further update (see here) to “stakeholders” to mark the end of the second year of the camping byelaws. This post takes a critical examination of what the LLTNPA is saying, considers what the LLTNPA is failing to tell stakeholders and takes…
Recent news stories (above and here) about community financing of renewables and the benefits which may be derived from them should not be allowed to conceal what is going on across Scotland and in our National Parks. The primary driving force behind the development of renewables is profit for the few and within the overall…
On Friday Cairngorms National Park Authority Board Members voted against the recommendations of their officers and rejected Natural Retreats’ Planning Application for a dry ski slope at Cairngorm. I must admit that, having just a week earlier praised the CNPA Board for being far more open and prepared to take other Public Authorities than…
Back in August, I noted from the Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority weekly planning list the following planning application from Luss Estates Ref 2018/0166/DET (see here): Proposal Change of use of former slate quays to allow a) the unloading of felled timber (Storage and Distribution Class 6), b) occasional use for…
Parkswatch sometimes gets it wrong and has done so in claiming that with hydro schemes in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park that it is the tracks, not the buried pipelines, which are the main issue. That is not the case at the Burn of Mar hydro scheme, situated at the back of Conic…
Stakeholder Groups continue to view the ongoing situation on CairnGorm Mountain with dismay. This post takes a further look at how Cairngorm is being managed according to the lease agreement between Highlands and Islands Enterprise and their tenant, CairnGorm Mountain Ltd, a.k.a Natural Retreats. The lease contains this clause: Section 2: Maintenance Works to Premises….
Cairngorm is a beautiful mountain. It retains that beauty despite Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s record as custodians of the Cairngorm Estate during which landscape and wildlife, and all the people to whom these are important, have been shown scant respect. Despite the unnecessary clutter, rubbish and vehicle tracks the ski areas too retain their beauty…
Scotland has a long history of failed economic projects – with railways providing some prime examples. Within the land now designated as a National Park I am particularly fond of the proposals developed during the 1845 railway bubble. The Caledonian Northern Direct Company, chaired by the Duke of Montrose, proposed construction of a line…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee is due to consider the application by Natural Retreats, financed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, for a dry ski slope at Cairngorm (see here). It hard to conceive of a more inappropriate development but officers have recommended that Board Members accept the proposal. The issues are…
In January I blogged about the estate management plans the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has been developing with some landowners (see here) and which I had requested be made public last October. As a result of my appeal to the Information Commissioner, in July the LLTNPA “voluntarily” published some information on Integrated…
I have followed some of the Parkswatch blogs about the awful hydro tracks around Glen Falloch (see here) and seen them for myself from the hills. In July 2017 we were staying in Lochcarron and I was horrified to see a hydro scheme at Coulags at the start of the walk up Maol Chean-dearg. This…
The launch of a campaign last week (see here) by Green MSP Ross Greer to get people to object to the Flamingo Land Planning Application and promoted by Save Loch Lomond (see here) has had a huge response. 26,520 people to date have registered objections on the portal the Greens have set up Whether the Loch…
Parkswatch has commented several times on the differences between our two National Parks and the evidence now suggests that they are going in two different directions, one generally positive the other disastrous. This was very evident from their Board Meetings which took place in September. The agenda of the September Board Meeting of the Loch…
I had previously arranged to go for a walk to look at the state of Cairngorm yesterday. Coincidentally, this was a day after HIE announced (see here for News Release) that the funicular would be closed for another month to allow “further investigation” of cracks that have appeared and in the same week that the…