On the same day, 24th May, that the Cairngorms National Park issued a news piece entitled Our National Treasures about the European Day of Parks, the police issued a news release about four geese that had been found poisoned near Loch Gynack by Kingussie at the end of April. This received excellent coverage on Raptor…
Category: Cairngorms
Parkswatch previously published information about the amounts collected from Voluntary Donations at the Coire Cas car park between 2013 and 2017 (see here). HIE were asked to detail how that money had been spent and although they ‘did not have that information’’ they asserted ‘funds were committed to car park maintenance and other projects’ We…
The revised Planning Application to redevelop and expand the Ptarmigan Restaurant near the top of Cairn Gorm is to be considered by the Cairngorms National Park Authority on Friday (see here – item 6). Officers are recommending that the application should be approved. This post explains why CNPA Board Members should reject the application and…
Highlands and Islands Enterprise, as owners and custodians of the Cairn Gorm Estate, have full responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the public assets that lie within the estate. In an article published in the Press and Journal on Thursday 16 May 2019 headed “Cairngorm funicular report held up over potential legal action” (see…
Just six weeks after the Cairngorms National Park Authority adopted a set of working principles for future development at Cairn Gorm (see here), including the need for a masterplan BEFORE any new Planning Applications were considered, guess what? Highlands and Islands Enterprise has submitted yet another Planning Application to Highland Council for Cairn Gorm (see…
In the last six weeks two retrospective applications for planning permission for works on hill roads have been submitted to the Cairngorms National Park Authority. The first (see here) is from Atholl estates for a section of road by Meall Tionail, south of Beinn Dearg. The second (see here) is from the Glenbanchor estate for…
The Scottish Parliament has been a target for Climate Change protesters, including ‘Extinction Rebellion’, while school children have been taking days off school to protest. It’s big news and rightfully so with the future of our planet and even our very existence at stake. The Scottish Government have declared a ‘Climate Emergency’ and vowed to…
I had been meaning to follow up why the last meeting of the Cairngorms National Park Authority Board had held a confidential discussion on Cairngorm Mountain when last week the Cairngorms National Park Authority published a new document., “Cairngorm Mountain – CNPA Working Principles”. An email to the Cairngorms National Park Authority established that the…
Evidence from the last few weeks shows that, despite some recent progress (see here for example), there is still an extensive failure to implement access rights in our National Parks. This is particularly worrying because our National Parks are the best resourced Access Authorities in Scotland and have had a statutory duty to promote public…
I almost never watch TV but last week, in the middle of the first week of the Extinction Rebellion protest, I did watch the BBC documentary “Climate Change – the Facts” narrated by David Attenborough. The footage of forest fires burning out of control and the evidence that not only have the numbers of fires…
This is the second, in a series of posts (see here), about HIE’s mismanagement of Cairn Gorm based on their latest response to my questions about the procurement process which led to CairnGorm Mountain Ltd being outsourced to “Natural Retreats”. In 2013 Highlands and Islands Enterprise excluded Cairngorms Snowsports, a sound local company with a…
At the end of last week Highlands and Islands Enterprise provided me with a number of documents relating to their decision to “appoint” “Natural Retreats” to “operate” Cairngorm Mountain Ltd. To give HIE credit, they have not tried to delay release of the information and relatively little of it is redacted. The documents confirm there…
Following Dave Morris’ post (see here) on how the Cairngorms National Park Authority are trying to restrict access to paths, parkswatch has been sent some more photos of unlawful signs by readers. When a National Park, which has a privileged place on the National Access Forum, believes its alright to issue a news release telling…
Scotland has fewer democratically elected representatives and a more centralised system of government than anywhere else in Europe, including England (see here) and (here). More and more power is exercised directly by the Scottish Government, . While the Scottish Parliament has, since it was set up, reviewed or created a number of new Public Authorities,…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority‘s news release On 2 April the Cairngorms National Park Authority issued a news release under the heading “Protect wildlife – dogs on leads please” here. This news release should set alarm bells ringing amongst all who cherish our statutory rights of access to land. Although much of the news release…
Almost the first thing Highland and Islands Enterprise did after it bought back Cairn Gorm Mountain was to inform the Cairngorms National Park Authority that it wished to proceed with the Planning Application to redevelop the Ptarmigan building near the summit of Cairn Gorm (see here for background). About a month ago stories appeared in…
The posts on parkswatch last week by Graham Garfoot (see here) and Alan Brattey (see here) coincided with the excellent coverage from the BBC about Highland and Islands Enterprise’s disastrous management of Cairn Gorm. This appeared on both radio and TV and while I had been interviewed for the story a few weeks ago I…
Modern ATVs allow estates motorised access to almost anywhere and their widespread use is causing environmental damage as well as creating ugly visual intrusions into otherwise unspoilt landscapes. Inevitably, planning applications are now coming forward to construct vehicle tracks where ATV damage has occurred, supported by the argument that built tracks are the lesser of…
The CairnGorm Funicular has been inoperable for the last 6 months and the economic impact of the closure was brought into sharp focus this week in an article published in the excellent Strathspey and Badenoch Herald. There has very clearly been a considerable negative impact and local businesses have expressed dismay at the lack of…
Following my post on 28/2/2019 about the ADAC Structure and COWI reports on the funicular (see here), this post shows how Highlands and Islands Enterprise are deliberately trying to cover up and hide information about what has gone wrong with the Funicular on Cairngorm. I sent an FOI request on 03/10/2018 for two other reports…
Its the muirburn season (1st October to 15th April). Following my post on muirburn at Mar Lodge (see here), REVIVE has released film footage of muirburn in the Cairngorms National Park (see here). This was covered by the Ferret yesterday (see here). Parkswatch can add to the concerns about the impact of muirburn on the…
What is the connection between national parks and Brexit? Not much might be your first reaction, but read on…… The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy has an influence on most of the UK’s countryside, from the intensively managed fields adjacent to our villages and towns to the highest summits where the sheep roam freely. Most…
Most people travelling north over the Drumochter pass will have noticed the terrible scars across the hillside on the right after the summit. Many probably realise they are a consequence of the construction of the Beauly Denny powerline. Few will realise, unless they have read previous parkswatch posts, that this destruction has taken place in…
This being the muirburn season – I spotted four examples in the Cairngorms National Park on my way up to Aviemore 12 days ago – it was very interesting to see how the Scottish media picked up on the fire damage caused by a dropped cigarette rather than all the fires deliberately started by landowners. …
Last year parkswatch covered Fergus Ewing’s intervention on behalf of the owner of the Carrbridge Hotel, Mr Watt, to create a new car park in an area outside the village settlement boundary where trees had been illegally felled (see here). This has been followed up by the environmental journalist, Rob Edwards, who published the…