There is another side to the hullabaloo that the Scottish Gamekeepers Association (SGA) raised three weeks ago about a pregnant red deer hind that had been shot out of season on Skye (see here). Last week (see here), on the edge of the Fannichs, I saw and smelled more dead red deer than I have…
Category: Loch Lomond and Trossachs
It’s now three years since the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) approved the new planning application (see here) for the financial gamble that is the Cononish goldmine. After it was reported in December that the mine was fully funded until 2022 and the first gold from the mine had been poured (see…
The closure of public toilets in Scotland, which had been going on for years, gathered pace under austerity (see here and here for example), with hardly a murmur of political dissent. The Victorians – who knew the value of public conveniences, from both a public health and a tourism perspective – would have been appalled. …
Ten days ago I was out walking the hills around Glen Tarken and parked in the first layby on the A85 heading west from St Fillans. The entire shore of Loch Earn, together with the villages of St Fillans and Lochearnhead at either end, are part of the Trossachs Camping Management zone where camping is…
It is eleven months since I raised concerns about the implications of the police charging two hillwalkers at Crianlarich with Culpable and Reckless Conduct (see here). In January, two women from Fife were charged with the same offence after they had called the mountain rescue on Ben Lomond (see here). Now the police have charged…
This post examines the need to elect politicians to the next Scottish Parliament who are committed to land reform legislation. It notes the loss of experienced land reformers and the need to replace them with others who have equal enthusiasm for land reform. It provides examples of recent difficulties including serious misunderstandings within VisitScotland of…
After being awarded an extra £3m by the Scottish Government for 2021-22, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority decided at their meeting on 15th March to delay deciding how to spend £965,000 of this until their June meeting (see here). One Board Member did ask Pete Wightman, the Director of Corporate Services, about…
Last week, in my first visit to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park for months, I went for a walk over the hills to the west of Lochgoilhead. The scenery above 2000ft is fantastic, wild and unspoilt and there are places where you feel you are in a landscape worthy of a National Park…
After visiting the Upper River Falloch hydro scheme last August, I argued that the scheme was unsustainable on the basis of the evidence that I saw then (see here). Photos sent to me this week show that in the eight months since there have been significant landscape changes and engineering works. These raise further questions…
The relaxation of travel restrictions on outdoor recreation and the Lomond & Trossachs National Park
Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement last week that the restrictions on travel within Scotland for outdoor recreation would be relaxed on 16th April, ten days earlier than scheduled, took most people by surprise. The legal restrictions on travel which were first introduced on 27th November remain in place, meaning that you still can only travel outside your…
After its Board Meeting, which approved a large increase of expenditure on visitor management (see here), the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority held a pre-season Stakeholder Briefing Session on 26th March to tell people about their plans “to manage visitor pressures when lockdown restrictions begin to ease”. Too late for genuine consultation, it…
In August 2019 the Glen Ample Estate submitted a Prior Notification to widen a section of the core path through the glen for forestry purposes. The core path forms part of the popular walking route from Loch Lubnaig to Beinn Each and the Munro, Stuc a Chroin. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority…
The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authorities (NPAs) were both awarded significant increases in funding in the Scottish Government’s budget (see here), a significant turn-around in fortunes. In September the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) reported a significant hole in their finances, with a projected deficit – after yet…
A story in the Daily Record last week, about how a bride and groom who found their wedding venue at Balloch abandoned (see here), provides further evidence of the disastrous consequences of the National Park Authority’s commercialisation policy and its murky relationship with David Moulsdale, the founder of Optical Express. The wedding venue was located…
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which introduced access rights, also gave Scotland Local Authorities and National Parks new powers and duties as “Access Authorities”. Section 25 required Access Authorities to set up one or more Local Access Forums (LAFs) to advise on the exercise of access rights in their area and to help resolve…
There is a case for using car park charges as an income stream to invest in visitor infrastructure and also to encourage people to visit by public transport, but that is not what is happening in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Instead, our public authorities have embarked on an unprincipled free-for-all extortion racket…
Ten days ago the Green MSP, Ross Greer, issued a news release (see here) after being informed by Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, that Scottish Enterprise “will not be a co-applicant in the planning process” with Flamingo Land for their proposed new development at Balloch. The story was picked up a couple…
Whether you know Dave or have never come across him, the 10 minute video produced by the Fort William Mountain Film festival (see here), much of which is set in the Cairngorms National Park, should be an inspiration for anyone concerned about the natural environment and access to nature. It shows just what can be…
The Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park Authority – is there anybody there for outdoor recreation?
Most people I know who are working at home are getting more work done there than if they had the distractions of the office. This has also been claimed in the press to be the case. But in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) it appears that during the Covid crisis much…
The planning system in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is so bad that normally it can be difficult to laugh. But regular readers might just enjoy this tale of an application to install a glorified tap at the back of the toilet block at Rowardennan…………….. The story, I believe, begins in 2018 when…
On Friday the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division rejected a request from the local community at Gartocharn that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) should have required the Hunter Foundation to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before approving their planning application at Ross Priory. The reasons for the decision…
Two weeks ago, two women who had travelled from Fife to walk up Ben Lomond and called the rescue team were charged with Culpable and Reckless Conduct (see here). Last week two men who had travelled from Glasgow to Ben Nevis and had to be rescued from Minus Two Gully were issued with a fixed penalty…
Following my second post (see here) on the Inverardran forest road near Crianlarch, Mary Jack sent me a list of all the prior notifications for forest roads considered by Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) last year and their decision in each case. This post considers what that list (see here) tells us…
It is most welcome that the collective voice of those calling for an end to the use of plastic tree tubes is growing in strength and that Forest and Land Scotland has committed to minimising their use (see here). But our National Parks should go a step further and ban their use completely. Many people…
After my post about the Cairngorm Hotel’s failure to pay the minimum wage to all their staff (see here), the court case this week about the fire at Cameron House provides further evidence that we need to take a far more critical approach to the tourist industry. Elements of it are far from benign and,…