Five months ago I blogged about the fly tipping which had been left for months by Loch Iubhair in Glen Dochart and commented that I hoped the Park’s new Litter Prevention Manager would help to address the issues  (see here).  In the last three weeks Dave Morris twice visited the parking and picnic area, which is promoted by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (see here).

The LLTNPA website has, for the last three years, been giving the misleading impression that Loch Iubhair forms part of a camping management zone and therefore you need a permit to camp in its vicinity:

The continuing problems at this picnic site in Glen Dochart shows that it is fly tipping, not camping that is cause for greatest concern. As the Park Authority squanders its limited resources on the persecution of campers the fly tippers appear to be untouchables, dumping massive amounts of litter and other waste in key visitor locations where it remains for weeks or months.

On 5th July Dave Morris returned and, as these photos demonstrate, in the intervening week the pile of rubbish had grown considerably with extra black bags having been added to the pile.

One would have thought in the intervening week a Park Ranger would have visited the site and taken action to remove the mess or does no-one check up on promoted picnic areas?  It should not be left to members of the public to report fly tipping in key locations for visitors.  We should be able to depend on the Park to maintain adequate surveillance and take rapid action when fly tipping appears.

In the intervening week a digger had also been left on site on a trailer, which poses a bit of a puzzle.  Was it there to remove the fly tipping,  to repair the enormous pot holes in the parking area or was it just another bit of fly tipping itself (stolen, maybe)?

The challenges facing the LLTNPA’s Litter Prevention Manager are considerable.  On the one hand they need to find a way to force the various public authorities operating within the National Park to co-operate on litter prevention and collection, on the other they need to set up robust internal systems to address the issue. More focus on fly tippers and less persecution of campers would be a big step forward.