Following Peter Page’s post on 18th January (see here) showing the consequences of the failure to provide basic visitor infrastructure at Rowardennan below Ben Lomond , on 6th February the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) published a notice on the Public Contracts Scotland portal (see here). This showed the LLTNPA had awarded…
Category: Loch Lomond and Trossachs
There appears to have been no public news about what has been happening at the Cononish goldmine since its owner, Scotgold Resources, went into administration on 24th November. Following my post of 18th December (see here), which described some of the pollutions incidents that had taken place earlier this year and my efforts to bring…
Temperatures in Scotland on Sunday reached a UK record of 19.6 degrees at Kinlochewe in Torridon. There is an excellent short blog and photos showing the impact on the Scottish Avalanche Information Service website (see here). While the temperature spike is explained by the foehn effect (see here), it still beats previous heat records in…
On 25th January, Network Rail announced it was extending the platforms on eight stations along the West Highland Line by 15m at a cost of £1.7m to allow trains to run with an extra carriage (see here). The purpose of this investment is to help meet increasing passenger demand and enable the trains to carry…
The weather was extraordinary on Ben Lomond on 7th January- blue sky and sunshine, with dry, crisp snow on the ground and fog in the valleys. As a result it was very busy, I have never seen so many people enjoying the hill at the same time – I guess that I saw / passed…
Parkswatch has already featured the Shared Rural Networks (SRN) scheme, and some instances of its potential impact (see here), (here) and (here). Some digging (mostly by others) reveals that the potential impact of the SRN scheme is much bigger and much worse that many people previously thought. To recap, the Shared Rural Networks (SRN) scheme is…
Soon after suggesting that sporting estates managed for grouse pose the greater threat to access rights because of their concerted attempts to make people “keep to the path” (see here), I came across this salutary reminder that some deer stalking estates are still ignoring the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC). One of the primary meanings…
Last week I went out at Balmaha, the first time for over a year, and was greeted by a new forest of tree tubes. It looks terrible, is terrible for nature and ,this post argues, it exemplifies what is wrong with the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) and its new National Park…
I had not attended a Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) board meeting in person since before the Covid lockdown but on 11th December once again took the train to Balloch. Having just written a post on The fundamentally useless National Park Authority and its useless National Park plan it was very decent…
The Balloch and Haldane Community Council, who resigned en masse after backing the Flamingo Land development, is back up and running again with new people. That is a very good thing for the local community and Parkswatch is pleased to support their work by featuring this article by Lynne Somerville, their vice-chairperson, which is also…
Restoring Scotland’s natural woodland cover and biodiversity from centuries of over grazing is an urgent and necessary step towards sustainable management and care for our hills and mountains. Woodland regeneration could, within decades, extend throughout the uplands allowing a natural woodland mosaic to develop, increasing biodiversity while protecting and enhancing the terrestrial carbon cycles. The…
The publication date of the April Monitoring report of the Cononish goldmine is given on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)as 26th October (see here), four days before the Planning Committee Meeting on 30th October (see here) which considered and then “noted” the “annual report” on the mine. There was absolutely no…
The Scottish Government’s consultation on Tackling the Nature Emergency (see here) closed on Thursday. It is yet another consultation that will have consumed vast amounts of time and energy but is unlikely to change much. This post considers some of the key reasons why the Scottish Government’s proposals for nature restoration won’t work. A second…
By happy timing, John Urquhart’s agenda article for the Herald on the end of funding for the A82/A83 litter bins and loos (which might be easier to read here) appeared two days before the meeting on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) on Monday. There is nothing in the papers for…
The Scottish Government’s consultation on “Tackling the Nature Emergency: Scotland’s Strategic Framework for Biodiversity” (see here), which was launched in September and includes proposals to reform Scotland’s National Parks, closes on 14th December. To date I have only considered the Scottish Government’s undemocratic proposal to increase Ministerial control over appointments to National Park board appointments…
Having written fairly extensively about the impact of grazing on landslips, earlier this week I was alerted that sheep had got into the new native wood plantation intended to help stabilise the slopes above the A83 at the Rest and Be Thankful. I contacted Nick Halls, a contributor to Parkswatch, who by chance was returning…
Ostensibly the law governing public authorities in Scotland requires them to operate in an open and transparent manner. The Freedom of Information Act required public authorities to produce publication schemes, setting out what information they publish as a a matter of course (the idea being to reduce the need for formal requests for information), while…
In the majority of National Parks across the world land is publicly owned but not in Scotland nor the wider UK. That might not matter so much if Scotland’s National Parks had real powers to control how land is used and traded but their current powers are limited. Just as importantly, neither the Loch Lomond…
On 9th November, two days after Scotgold announced (see here) it had been unable to find a new investor for the Cononish goldmine and it was likely to go into administration, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) informed me their Planning Committee had noted without amendment the “annual report” on the mine….
I am not sure when I first saw the bright green plastic tree tubes on the left of the A82 heading north from Crianlarich but on Saturday I stopped to have a look. The site is much easier to access than previously as in 2020 the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority granted planning…
The UK Government, landowners and telecommunications masts – the landscape and environmental impacts
Who benefits from the telecommunication masts? The spate of new telecommunications masts which, as George Allan from the North East Mountain Trust explained on Monday (see here), threaten some of Scotland’s finest landscapes are intended to eliminate “total not spots”. They form part of the Shared Rural Network programme and are being funded by…
Planning applications are coming in thick and fast for 25 metre communications masts in remote hill country in Scotland as part of the UK Government’s Digital Connectivity Programme – the Shared Rural Network. Some appear to have almost no public benefit and are proposed for Scotland’s finest landscapes. Anyone for near to the Falls…
Since writing about the consequences of the extreme rainfall which fell in Cowal (see here) and Glen Kinglas (see here) on 7th October, I have been sent some further photos which provides an opportunity to add to some of the arguments I made in those posts. While I saw the extent of the extensive flooding…
Shortly after I wrote to Dr Heather Reid, the Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA), questioning her decision that dealing with the potential risks at the Cononish goldmine caused by Scotgold’s financial difficulties was purely an operational matter (see here), a report on the mine appeared among the papers for…
According to BEAR Scotland, the consortium of private companies who manage trunk roads on behalf of Transport Scotland, around 160mm of rain fell in 36 hours around the Rest and Be Thankful two weekends ago and caused eleven landslips (see here– news release dated 11th October): “One small landslide at the Rest and be Thankful….