The propaganda
The reality
First the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) went after the campers, confining them to a few “permit areas” around the loch shores; then they went for the day visitors by shutting down visitor infrastructure and making it harder and harder to get to places; who and what will be next?
The LLTNPA’s attempts to restrict access represent not just an attack on access rights but on local culture and traditions. The people who are fighting back and challenging all the propaganda being spewed out by what is supposed to be a National Park are to be celebrated.
You forgot the boaters!
Introduced a registration scheme which treats all powered craft equally so sailing craft with small auxilliary outboards are regarded in the same way as high powered speed and ski boats with open exhausts.
Discouraged private launching slips. shut down the launch facility at Millarochy and close the oversubscribed and chaotic slip at Balloch one weekend every year for a swimming event that could be held anywhere.
Buoyed off more and more parts of the loch including popular anchorages of long standing, citing “conservation” legislation with the threat of draconian penalties.
Pester people using the island beaches with encounters with their Rangers of the “mind how you go” variety.
Most recently, introduced a requirement for official photo ID to operate a boat on the loch, unique in the UK as far as I know.
The aim is the same, reduce visitor numbers.
Just remembering the farmers field just north of Balmaha. He used to charge £1 for all day. On a good day it was full with families enjoying the beach. I was there last week and it was deserted. The park seems to be increasingly catering for quick stop Instagram tourists. Local people are being priced out. Went for a bivi on Narnain the other night. Shocked to see parking at Arrochar £1.50 an hour for the whole 24 hours. The whole area is becoming more unaffordable and inaccessible to local people.
FLS Stay the Night is a great idea but in the last 3 years it has gone from free to £7 a night to £7/10 a night and now £10/13 a night. I bet the various stopover places which were charging £10 a night for no facilities up to last year will be more this year.
Fewer, richer visitors is the goal for the area which was traditionally an escape for the ordinary people of the Glasgow area.
I cannot abide the control-freakery that is Loch Lomond National Park. Having enjoyed camping and boating on the Loch for almost 60 years I no longer feel welcome in my own back garden unless I do as I am told and offer up my retinal scans and DNA. I object most strongly to being forced to give up my once-enjoyed freedom of the water because I don’t have a smart phone or want to offer up my photograph. When the boat registration first came out I grudgingly complied but something told me then that it was the the thin edge of a wedge which would demand more and more control and restriction of my natural and historic freedom to roam in my own country. I always took away more rubbish than I came with. I will not be re-registering my small boat and subsequently, like an errant schoolboy, should I dare cross the water the Procurator Fiscal will now be waiting for me on the other side.
As you were previously registered with them, don’t forget to contact them with a formal instruction under data protection legislation to delete your imformation from any and all of their databases, as is your right as they no longer have a need to hold data on you.