To mark Save Loch Lomond Day, which is being run by Save Loch Lomond to celebrate the number of objections to the Flamingo Land Planning Application reaching 35,000, I thought I would take a look at how boating on the loch is being commercialised.

In January, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Park Authority, which was jointly responsible with Scottish Enterprise for appointing Flamingo Land as preferred bidder for the Riverside Site at Balloch, hiked its charges for boat launching from £50 to £80 for multiple launches.  For single launches the fee doubled from £10 to £20.   The justification given for this was that  the Park’s wish to generate revenue, which stems back to the commercialisation strategy it agreed back in 2013 (see here), and the LLTNPA’s wish to undercut private operators.   There is no mention of public service or the Park’s statutory duty to promote public enjoyment of the countryside.

The decision has not been taken by the LLTNPA Board but has been left to staff, like the decision to close the Milarrochy Bay slipway back in 2017 (see here) and many others.  There has been no consideration of the strategic consequences by the LLTNPA Board.  In a nutshell these are that there is now only one public boat launching point for the whole of Loch Lomond Loch Lomond which, with a surface area of 71 km² (27.5 sq miles) is the largest inland stretch of water in Great Britain and, boaters are not just being channelled to one point on the loch, they are being forced to pay £20 for the privilege.

Boating on Loch Lomond has had an interesting history and once provided the working class communities in the Vale of Leven important opportunities for leisure, with people taking boats up the Loch Lomond islands for weekends.  Use of the loch, however, has been in steady decline since the creation of the National Park and the regulation of boating:

That regulation was intended to control irresponsible behaviour and protect wildlife, not shut down access to the loch.

How the LLTNPA has been managing boating needs also to be seen in the wider context.  This is well demonstrated by what has been going on at the Riverside Site in Balloch.

Historically there was a ford by the bridge at Balloch and it provided a place where formerly people were able to launch boats into the River Leven, not far from where it flows out of Loch Lomond.     It is now effectively closed off and inaccessible.  This story has been repeated many times around the shores of Loch Lomond so that now, except for canoeists, people who boat are effectively at the mercy of the commercial operators, including the National Park Authority.

The proposed sale of the rest of the Riverside Site poses further threats to boating, more specifically to the boat clubs that are located along the shore there:

I understand there are all sorts of complex negotiations going on between the boat clubs and Flamingo Land about securing their future should the site be privatised.  All this would be completely unnecessary if the land was to retained in public ownership AND managed in a way that treated access to the loch as a legal right rather than an opportunity to make money.

Its well past time that the LLTNPA Board took a critical look at what is going on under its aegis and how people are being gradually, bit by bit, excluded both from the loch shores and the loch itself unless they are willing to pay.  Access to the loch should be a right, not a privilege dependent on ones financial means, and the LLTNPA should be developing measures which reverse the processes that have been taking place over the last few years.