The camping byelaws dominate the lengthy agenda of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Board meeting on Monday. There is information or decisions about the byelaws and camping plans under almost every agenda item (see here for papers) as well as a specific paper on Your Park. The most important thing that should have been…
Category: Loch Lomond and Trossachs
Three years ago I knew nothing about boating on Loch Lomond and, if you had asked me about the Loch Lomond byelaws, – the ones that control boat users on the Loch – my response would have probably been along the lines of “anything which controls speedboats must be a good thing”. That way…
The east Loch Lomond camping byelaws 2011 should have been repealed before the new camping byelaws came into effect on 1st March. (In fact they should have been repealed completely, not replaced, as they had only ever been agreed as a temporary measure (see here)). However, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority hit…
In what I believe is a very positive development Onekind has launched a campaign to protect mountain hares in the Cairngorms National Park (see here). I think they are right to focus on the National Park – if we cannot protect wildlife in our National Parks then we are unlikely to protect wildlife anywhere except for…
On Thursday, I went climbing near Glen Coe and on the way up and back down the A82 checked out a few things about the west Loch Lomond camping management zone. I almost missed the sign announcing the start of the zone, just before Luss, despite looking out for it. A large proportion of drivers…
Today probably marks the most retrograde in the history of access to land in Scotland since the Trespass Scotland Act of 1865 as the camping byelaws come into force. When even Radio 3, not renowned for covering the great outdoors, announces on its 7.30 news headlines that campers in one of Britain’s prime beauty spots…
In a post last week (see here) I explained how the LLTNPA had landscaped the area its owns by Loch Venachar House to block off access and how it is no longer possible to walk round the shore of Loch Venachar from the car park to Loch Venachar dam. In this post I will look…
Ten days ago I received a response to another Freedom of Information request, EIR 2016-068 Appendix A list meetings of the secret Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board business sessions that took place in 2016. There were six of them, a slight reduction from the ten held in 2015 (at the height…
Following my posts (see here) and (here) on the rights of and need for National Park Board Members to speak out, this excellent letter appeared in the Strathie this week. (I know Peter very slightly, he preceded me on the Board of SNH, but I have not had contact with him for c 10 years)….
Alteration of the camping byelaws The camping byelaws that now appear on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park website (see here) differ signficantly from those approved by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board and then sent to the Minister (see here). This came as a surprise to me because the then Minister,…
On Sunday, I was reminded of Oscar Wilde’s story of the selfish giant. The story is about a giant who returns to his castle, finds children playing in his garden and infuriated, builds a wall to keep them out but then the hard way learns the error of his ways. Its a parable about many…
Back in 2011 the justification for the camping byelaws on east Loch Lomond was all about anti-social behaviour. Here is what then Chief Executive Fiona Logan said on BBC News 10 March 2011: “National park chief executive Fiona Logan said she did not believe there were any other areas of the park where similar…
On 8th February, a few days after my post on freedom-speech-democracy-national-parks Peter Argyle, Convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, posted a Statement on Cairngorms News about his dispute with Board Member Councillor Bill Lobban titled “Convener Clear on Code of Conduct”. Its positive that Peter Argyle has been open about this because what…
I have now had responses to two of the issues I took up with the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park after the appearance of Gordon Watson, their Chief Executive, on the Out of Doors programme on National Parks early in the New Year and which I covered in a post at the time (see…
The above extract speaks for itself and confirms what most people already knew, the LLTNPA deliberately omitted the Loch Lomond Islands from the camping byelaw consultation because they thought if they did so, this might stop their attempt to undermine access rights because of the opposition it would create. This extract and the minute of…
A few weeks ago Jane Meek sent me photos of the Ardchullarie hydro scheme. The Ardchullarie Burn runs parallel to the path popular with hillwalkers that leads into Glen Ample and Ben Vorlich from Loch Lubnaig. I checked the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority planning portal to find out more about this…
I have been puzzling about the development of the camping byelaws by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park now for some time. Back in 2011 when the east Loch Lomond camping byelaws were put into place, the then LLTNPA Chief Executive Fiona Logan made a number of statements (these are taken from BBC News…
Even by the standards of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, the article which they appear to have placed in the March edition of the Motorhome magazine reaches new lows. I hope that every campervaner or motorhomer who reads the magazine complains to the National Park. The statement that campervaners/motorhomers require to…
The protest about plans for new social housing being proposed at Balmaha has received a fair amount of media coverage (see also http://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/housing-plan-destroy-ruin-west-12509029). While there has been some excellent follow-up in the Herald’s letter pages, there are a number of twists to the story which illustrate the hyprocrisy going on in the Loch Lomond and…
At 16.42 yesterday, just five hours after my last post which explained how I was still waiting for the further information from the secret Board Briefing sessions which the Information Commissioner had told the Park to send to me on 11the January, it arrived! Funnily enough, there was a similar delay in the Loch Lomond…
Regular readers will not be surprised to hear that the Information Commissioner wrote to me on 11th January (see here) to say that they had ascertained that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park holds more information about its secret Board “Briefing” sessions which it failed to declare. The Information Commissioner had previously required the…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park has been nominated by BBC Countryfile presenter as National Park of the year (see here) There are four other nominees, South Downs, Peak District, Snowdonia and Yorkshire Dales. The LLTNPA was quick to get in on the act, issuing its own press release and then arranging for this…
Following my piece on the rights of people to stay overnight in vehicles within the proposed camping management zones so long as their vehicle is on a public road, its verge or a layby provided by the Roads Authority (see here), I have had a speedy response from Argyll and Bute Council to my information…
After the Information Commissioner forced the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park to make public the slides that had been presented to the Board in the secret Board Briefing Sessions I asked follow up questions about three of those slides, including the one above. The answer was unsatisfactory EIR 2016-062 Response, so I asked for…
There was more on National Parks on Out of Doors on Saturday http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088flk5 including an interview with Robert Maund, former chair, and Ross Anderson current chair of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks from 36mins. I am a member of the SCNP Executive Committee. The interview focussed on the economic arguments for National Parks….