There is a case for tourism development at Balloch which goes all the way back to the Clyde Valley Regional Plan in 1949. That envisaged a number of developments along the south west corner of Loch Lomond segregated by green spaces. The problem is the developments now being proposed on the south shores of Loch…
Adam Watson and the Royal family On 24 Jan I was preparing a presentation (see here) to the planning committee of the Cairngorms National Park. This was in support of objections to a proposed new hill road on the Balavil estate in Badenoch. My preparation involved reference to material on hill tracks and roads published…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee, which all Board Members sit on, will consider the Balavil Estate’s Planning Application to build 5km of new road into the Monadhliath Wild Land Area (see here for all papers). The December CNPA Planning Committee rightly agreed to defer the application because it had not been advertised properly…
Under Section 14 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 landowners are prohibited from erecting any sign whose main purpose is to deter or prevent people from exercising access rights. Glen Etive, like some parts of our National Parks, is littered with signs that contravene access rights. In the last week I have reported to…
The consultation process The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority approved its statutory core path plan for consultation at its Board Meeting on 18th September. The 12 week consultation commenced two months later on 23rd November when a link to the Plan appeared on the consultation section of the LLTNPA website (see here). The…
Following my post (see here) on the flawed and unfair procurement process which resulted in Cairngorm Mountain Ltd being sold off to Natural Assets Investment Ltd, I have started to work out the costs to the public purse to date of that disastrous decision. The HIE Board should be doing this that would mean them…
While rumours are circulating that the Flamingo Land Planning Application to develop much of Balloch may be withdrawn and replaced by a number of separate applications, officially the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority have suspended the Planning Process since August while awaiting information from the applicant (see here). That hardly tallies with the…
While Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced last week that the funicular railway would be closed for the rest of the snowsport season on safety grounds, they have kept secret the three Improvement Notices served by the Health and Safety Executive in early December (see right above). While HIE has been keen to demonstrate that it…
I am pleased to report that following my post in November about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s (LLTNPA’s) unlawful application of the camping byelaws (see here), that they have started to address the issue of unlawful “No camping” within the National Park”. This post will first take a look at the law…
Most of the Information Requests that activists have submitted to Highlands and Islands Enterprise about Cairngorm are now being deal with under the Environmental Information [Scotland] Regulations 2014 rather than the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act, though both pieces of legislation are broadly similar. The EIRs place a duty on public bodies to make environmental…
I was up on Ben Ledi on a fine day just before Xmas and my walk got me thinking about the cumulative impact of the new run of river hydro schemes. There are three on the flanks of Ben Ledi: Gleannn Casaig to the West, Stank Glen to the north east and Milton Glen to…
Following my post about the upgrade of the existing hill roads at Balavil (see here) , this post takes a look at the Balavil Estate’s proposal to drive 5km of new road into the heart of the Monadliath Wild Land Area. In December the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee delayed the application to allow…
Following my critique of the proposed Allt Mheuran hydro scheme, this post takes a look at a further three of the hydro schemes proposed for Glen Etive which I walked around on 21st December. Allt Fhaolain The Allt Fhaolain is the second hydro scheme in Glen Etive where Highland Council required the developer to submit…
Following my post (see here) on the revisions to the Glen Etive hydro schemes, on the shortest day I went to take a closer look to compare what is being proposed compared with what is on the ground. I walked over the land included in four of the seven schemes, including the two subject to new…
The Royal Family has, ever since Queen Victoria came to Deeside, played a central role in legitimising hunting culture, practice and consequent land-use across upland Scotland. As long as the way they manage their land at Balmoral and Delnadamph (see here) remains unchallenged, other landowners across Scotland will mimic what they do. That entails maintaining…
A classic way to get developments through the planning system under the radar is to advertise them just before Xmas. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority did just that on Friday when it issued a letter (see here) to people who had objected to the Ben More hydro scheme stating that the planning…
Last Friday, the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee agreed to their officers’ recommendation that the deadline for comments on the proposed 5km road over the Monadhliath and through a Wild Land Area should be extended until 10th January. That is very welcome. It rectifies CNPA’s failure to consult properly (see here) and gives people time…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board meeting on 10th December was a complete contrast to the September “stand-up” meeting with its threadbare agenda (see here). This time the agenda was packed (see here) but the meeting was as poorly organised as the last. Time for National Park Board Meetings to be…
Yesterday, Highlands and Islands Enterprise was forced to release the full copy of the Report it had commissioned from SE Group into ski infrastructure at Cairn Gorm. After HIE failed to publish the Report when launching its new vision for Cairn Gorm (see here), several people submitted freedom of information requests. Then, when the information…
On Friday, Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced that they had reached agreement with the Adminstrators to take back Cairngorm Mountain Ltd into public ownership (see here): “We are very pleased to have worked with the administrators to achieve a really positive outcome from a highly challenging situation. The deal that we’ve reached will protect jobs…
Anyone driving along the A82 this summer will have seen the test drilling rigs in Loch Lomond. While the A82 along West Lomond north of Tarbet undoubtably needs to be upgraded, Transport Scotland ruled out tunnelling right from that start on grounds of cost. This was a terrible decision, made without any proper public…
The case for the restoration of the Maid of the Loch The case for the restoration of the Maid of the Loch is extremely strong. The boat itself is part of our industrial and cultural heritage http:// https://www.maidoftheloch.org/history. As importantly, its mooring by the pier is located next door to the steam slipway and…
Last Friday the Cairngorm National Park Authority Board approved a “presumption against new hill tracks” in its new draft Local Development Plan which is about to be issued for consultation. This was welcome. Just a week later, those same Board Members, who all sit on the Planning Committee, were due to consider a report asking…
[This post is partially in response to comments made by Ray Sefton on Drennan Watson’s post “Time for a re-think at Cairn Gorm” https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2018/12/05/time-for-a-re-think-at-cairngorm/”] Rights of public access, as established by the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, apply to all ground around the Ptarmigan restaurant and beyond, to the far reaches of land and water…
There have been many objections to the Flamingo Land Planning Application but very little consideration given to how it fits with the policies set out in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Local Development Plan (LDP). While politics are often a more important factor than plans in determining planning applications, the LDP is…