Recently a new publication appeared on the LLTNPA website under Our Plans and Publications. This is headed “Indicative Regional Spatial Strategy (Draft) – 2020” (see here). The following includes excerpts from it. You will see that there are areas included for potential development where there has already been controversy and public outcry, notably proposals for…
Category: Loch Lomond and Trossachs
Moulsdale Properties’ planning application at Tarbet In a welcome decision, this week Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority planners rejected a retrospective planning application from Moulsdale Properties for the enlarged entrance and road leading up the Ben Cruach Lodge (see here). Key points from the report (see here) are: There was widespread opposition to…
I have been staying in Braemar for the week and so far have seen almost no litter (and no fly tipping) in the Cairngorms National Park, quite a contrast to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in the summer (see here). Even accepting that it is now quieter than August, the differences are quite…
Ben A’an is a honeypot for hill walking, especially for “beginners”. Fantastic views, steep and craggy enough to provide a sense of adventure and not too far from urban populations, it is many people’s first hill. It has been very popular for some time and has become even more so due to the corona crisis. …
A week ago, Land Use Consultants withdrew their request to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority for a scoping opinion about a possible chalet development on land between the River Falloch and the A82 north of Ardlui (see here) after a large area of ancient woodland had been unlawfully felled. Back in 1992…
Two weeks ago I spoke to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board (see here) about the urgent need to consider improved visitor infrastructure over the winter as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic. More specifically, I tried to draw attention to deficiencies in papers on Visitor Management and Litter Prevention that…
Yesterday, on my way up to Speyside I pulled into a layby and parked behind a trailer loaded with crates. I did not realise immediately but half were packed with adult red legged partridge (you can just see them in the lower four crates on the left). Breeding of red-legged partridge is now a sizeable…
After my post last week (see here) on attempts to stop people exercising access rights post-Covid, I was sent these photos from Ledard Farm in Strathard. The Land Reform Act gave people the right to access fields with livestock and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code states this clearly: “Access rights extend to fields with farm…
On Monday I was pleased to speak at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Meeting on the need for improved visitor infrastructure in the National Park. While I will come back to the case I presented (see here) in a further post, I was only about to do because the LLTNPA has…
Following the release of lockdown, I have come across far fewer no access signs in Scotland’s countryside compared to the aftermath of the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2001. The main impediments to access in areas like the east shore of Loch Lomond have been the closure of roads and car parks by Public Authorities…
In the early hours of Sunday, only six days after it was re-opened (see here), the A83 was closed after another landslide on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean (see here). The BBC report stated there had been 75mm of rain in 24 hours. Then yesterday the West Highland Line was closed between Bridge or…
The Dirty Camping debate in the Scottish Parliament On Wednesday, almost an hour after it was scheduled and after a very long day, MSPs started to debate Murdo Fraser’s motion on Dirty Camping (see here) at 6pm. Although the chamber appeared mostly empty, a number of MSPs contributed online and the debate went on until…
The Scottish Parliament this afternoon debates a motion (see here) by Murdo Fraser on Dirty Camping, just the second members’ debate since the start of the corona crisis. While the Scottish Parliament increasingly appears to have little real power, what is said today could still be very important for framing any debate on camping and campervanning…
When I went up upper Glen Falloch on 8th August to look at the hydro intake (see here), I spotted a new forestry road on the far side of the river. This appears to be in the exact same location as a road which was notified to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority…
If you did not hear the Call Kaye programmme on 18th August, “Is it time to stop moaning about tourists”, it is highly recommended listening. It is available on iplayer (see here) for another 9 days (from 1 min 20 secs for an hour) and, after all the moaning, mainly featured people who were advocating…
In August, after the landslides at the Rest and Be Thankful, I visited Glen Falloch to look at what damage had been done to the run of river hydro schemes there by the heavy rainfall. It is three weeks since I blogged about the damage that I had missed seeing in 2019 (see here). That…
School Wood, Nethy Bridge On Friday (see here), after a long campaign by local conservationists, the Cairngorms National Park Authority Board decided by a vote of 14-2 to reject the recommendations of their planning staff and refuse the application for housing at School Wood. They are to be congratulated. This was a major test for…
Last Sunday I went for a walk around Ceann na Baintighearna from Glen Buckie which runs south from Loch Voil. We took a slanting track up from north of Ballimore, past this neat farm dump. It had been preceded by piles of equally neatly stacked logs which were slowly rotting. A wasted resource. I don’t…
Yesterday Save Loch Lomond sent parkswatch a number of photos of rubbish from the layby off the A82 on the West side of Loch Lomond opposite the Carrick. They also posted a video (see here) on their Facebook page. The comments on that page were right, this is disgusting. But this provides more evidence that…
Following my posts on how litter (see here) and traffic management issues (see here) are being used to attack access rights, Perth and Kinross Council has now gone further than even the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has dared to do. The move could undermine access rights across Scotland. The comments on thei…
Earlier in the week, a few people copied me into a twitter exchange about Scottish Natural Heritage’s delayed name change. If I was capable of doing anything on twitter, except using it as a means of enabling people to follow parkwatch’s posts, I might have shared this: Says it all really! If you don’t…
A few weeks ago some friends went in their campervan to Glen Muick, on Deeside, and stopped off overnight in the lower part of the glen. They were woken in the early hours by the sound of passing traffic. They were stunned by the number of visitors, remarking that it was just like the Lake…
Since lockdown was relaxed, it seems hardly a day has gone past when there has not been some national media coverage claiming that visitors have been responsible for a wave of litter that is said to engulfing the countryside. In the vast majority of cases visitors have been condemned, abused even, sometimes by people purporting…
On Friday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park issued a Stop Notice to prevent further work taking place on the creation of this new entrance onto the A811 on the south side of Loch Lomond (see here). Kilmaronock Community Council, which covers the area, had alerted them to the work a few days…
Last Tuesday, almost exactly a year after the large floods that caused so much destruction in Glen Falloch (see here), torrential rain triggered another massive landslip on the slopes of Beinn Luibhean closing the A83 and the old Military Road below the Rest and Be Thankful. This post argues that the Scottish Government’s tinkering option…