Looking back on my long involvement in conflicts on Cairn Gorm what always strikes me is that the main cause has not be tensions between landuses but simple incompetence – particularly by HIDB/HIE. Now Highlands and Islands Enterprise is having to take over a bankrupt company running the facility for the second time and there…
Category: Cairngorms
I have been looking at the most recent audited Report and Financial Statements of Cairngorm Mountain Limited (CML) and its parent company, Natural Assets Investments Limited (NAIL) , both for the year ended 31 December 2017, and signed on behalf of the Directors on 18 September 2018. These both show heavy losses for the year,…
Yesterday Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced (see here) that CairnGorm Mountain Ltd had gone into administration. This was the company they had set up to replace the Cairngorm Chairlift Company and later sold off on the cheap in 2014 to company owned by a hedge fund manager, David Michael Gorton. After four years of shocking…
A couple of weeks ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority started to advertise their local member elections which are due to take place on 21st March 2019 (see here). They are trying to encourage more people to stand and to ensure that residents are registered to vote. Both initiatives are very welcome. As part of…
Last weekend there was enough snow for skiing at Cairn Gorm but, with the funicular out of action, there was no way to get to the Ptarmigan Bowl for downhill skiers. A shame because Sunday was a beautiful day. With HIE’s announcement (see here) that the report into the funicular’s problems will not now be…
My post on the dereliction at the former Arrochar torpedo site (see here) received some comments that the Loch Lomond National Park Authority could not be blamed for failing to address an issue if they did not have the power to do so. I agreed, but stated I believed the LLTNPA in those circumstances still…
The disappearance of two further tagged hen harriers within the Cairngorms National Park was entirely predictable. Its almost certainly blown apart the commendable target the Cairngorms National Park Authority set in its National Park Partnership Plan “To eliminate raptor persecution”. That should not be a surprise. The 2017-22 Plan failed to tackle the underlying…
In the talk I am giving tonight in Kingussie, I will be looking at the recommendations set out in the Report of the Cairngorms Working Party, Common Sense and Sustainability. This was published in December 1992 and played a key role in the creation of the National Park 10 years later. While some of its…
Despite all that is going on with the funicular and HIE’s new vision for Cairn Gorm (see here), I make no apology for looking again at the new car park charges at Cairn Gorm (see here) and (here). While they might appear a relatively minor issue, they illustrate the disastrous way in which Cairngorm…
With 12 years collective learning since the implementation of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (the Act) and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) in 2006, one might expect the core principles enshrined in both to be embraced by the agencies charged with managing access and enforcing the legislation. From experience I’ve generally found that…
Last week I wrote to Charlotte Wright, Chief Executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, welcoming HIE’s recognition of the need for investment in new ski infrastructure at Cairn Gorm but suggesting it was now time for them to step aside and let others develop a new plan. Unfortunately HIE’s pronouncements about their new vision for…
The purchase of the Kinrara Estate by Wild Land Ltd, which is owned by Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen, received wide media coverage including from papers who like to treat such matters as part of our celebrity culture (see here). It raises some dilemmas for people who believe that fundamental land reform is needed to address…
Author’s Note: I withdrew this post minutes after it was first published last week because HIE asked me to do so to allow for further discussions. I did so in good faith and then received this email: Dear Mr Brattey Thank you for your email on Wednesday outlining the concerns of ‘Save the Ciste’ with…
HIE yesterday announced a new £27m vision for Cairn Gorm (see here), along with a video and Executive Summary (here). The figures dwarf the £4m they had previously identified as necessary to secure the future of CairnGorm Mountain Ltd and Natural Retreats. There are three good things about the announcement. First, that a public agency…
Back in May, I featured a deer fence on the Pitmain Estate in a post headed if-you-come-across-an-access-problem-this-weekend-report-it/. I had reported the fence, which prevented people accessing the north shore of Loch Gynack, to the Cairngorms National Park Authority as an obstruction to access rights. On 26th September, the CNPA informed me that they agreed that…
“Claims that the funicular railway is reliant on public money are totally absurd and without foundation” (Fergus Ewing MSP, 21 Dec 2000). Perhaps the greatest skill possessed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise is their ability to dupe most of our politicians, of every political party, in the European Parliament, Scottish Parliament or Highland Council. Never…
Apologies to readers who received notification of a post yesterday by Alan Brattey on HIE’s failure to maintain ski infrastructure at Cairn Gorm and then found the link broken. I removed the post a few minutes after it had been published because HIE, on receipt of the report featured in it, had asked Alan for…
The proliferation of vehicle hill tracks in our National Parks, whether agreed through our planning system or not, has been a constant theme of Parkswatch over the last two and a half years. The first thing that we need to do to address the problem is to bring all vehicle tracks into the planning…
Following the election of local representatives to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority earlier this year (see here), the end of last week saw the announcement of the new Scottish Government appointees to our National Park Boards. The appointments appear to have attracted little publicity so this post points readers to information…
There is no hope for the future of Cairn Gorm while Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) remain as owners of the land on this mountain, while also acting as funders of most of the developments on the upper slopes. This was evident from the time that their predecessor body, Highlands and Islands Development Board (HIDB),…
In my last post on Cairngorm, in which I called for the Cairngorms National Park Authority to take a proactive role in addressing the issues on the mountain (see here), I stated the problems with the funicular were far greater than Highlands and Islands Enterprise were admitting. That claim was vindicated within a few days. …
While the move to develop a tourist tax gathers apace in Edinburgh and is now being advocated for other cities (see here for article by Marianne Taylor in Herald) there continues to be silence on this issue from our National Park Authorities. The issue of inadequate investment in tourist infrastructure in the countryside is as…
If Highlands and Island Enterprise and Natural Retreats fail to fix the funicular this winter that will have a huge impact on skiing at Cairngorm and serious short-term consequences for the local economy. I understand therefore HIE are under huge pressure to act but this should not be at the cost of abandoning all standards…
Recent news stories (above and here) about community financing of renewables and the benefits which may be derived from them should not be allowed to conceal what is going on across Scotland and in our National Parks. The primary driving force behind the development of renewables is profit for the few and within the overall…
On Friday Cairngorms National Park Authority Board Members voted against the recommendations of their officers and rejected Natural Retreats’ Planning Application for a dry ski slope at Cairngorm. I must admit that, having just a week earlier praised the CNPA Board for being far more open and prepared to take other Public Authorities than…