Anyone who tries to understand human affairs from a global perspective will have probably greeted last week’s announcement that a poll of readers of the Rough Guides had found Scotland to be the most beautiful country in the world with a deep shrug. It is of course just a piece of marketing based on…
Category: National Parks
I have been in the Dolomites a couple of weeks and had been hoping to write some posts about what Scotland National Parks could learn from Italy. The photo tells a tale. The Dolomites are almost completely free of litter. This road, to the Sella Pass and a major through route is closed on Wednesdays…
The debate on the failure of our Freedom of Information laws in the Scottish Parliament this afternoon on a motion proposed by the Labour (Corbyn supporting) MSP Neil Findlay, following pressure from journalists and the recently retired Information Commissioner Rosemary Agnew is very welcome (see last business of day). Here’s the latest evidence from the…
What has been going on, and going wrong, in Scotland’s two National Parks since they were created has been a microcosm of our society as a whole and I believe reflects the current crisis in capitalism. Increasing inequality, public authorities whose main purpose is to facilitate business interests (whether through outsourcing services or paving the…
By Ross MacBeath Loch Chon infrastructure Driving along the B829 where trees are coming into full boom after the recent rain, the greater area of natural woodlands has greened up with mosses and other vegetation moving into their main growing season. Nowhere is this more obvious that at the Loch Chon site where easy access…
ON THE SPOT REPORT Thank to James McCleary for his permission to reproduce his experience as an “On the Spot Report” A great example of leave no trace camping and a good looking Spot on Loch Venachar. This area is a natural campsite and long time favorite with campers. Report begins: 13th May 2017 Loch…
By a happy coincidence, just as Dave Morris’ fine letter about how investment in the outdoors can benefit landscapes, people and the local economy appeared in the Herald, I received EIR 2017-037 Response Chemical Disposal points from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. From the sublime to the ridiculous – but its an indication…
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….
If you have not read it, I would commend the lecture Andy Wightman gave last week on the case for a renewal of Scottish democracy. I am not a member of any political party, the lecture does not mention National Parks but what it says is, I believe, entirely relevant to our National Parks and…
A petition to the Scottish Government to stop the Flamingo Land development on the west riverside site at Balloch has been set up by George McMillan (see here). A number of signatories have made comments which show that people care deeply about our National Parks and believe they should be about protecting the landscape and…
New tracks continue to be bulldozed into the hills at an alarming rate for access to forestry, livestock, shooting, windfarms, hydro dams, pylons & masts. Designation of the area as a National Park appears to make no difference, for new tracks have now recently been bulldozed into most of the side glens of Glens Falloch…
I was shocked recently to see what is happening in the wild areas of the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. Every side glen in the Glens Dochart and Falloch area now has a hydro scheme. This necessitates the construction of tracks high into the hills and the addition of dams into previously wild…
Poorly constructed and often illegal hill tracks have visually blighted many parts of the Highlands over the past decades. Recent changes in legislation have brought some measure of control to these but ongoing vigilance is needed. Although this is a Scotland wide issue, it is highly relevant to the National Parks. Scottish Environment LINK…
Yesterday was the start of National Parks week, an annual celebration of National Parks in the UK. The theme of National Parks week this year is adventure. The Cairngorm National Park Authority has responded to this with a positive press release press release about celebrating National Parks, announcing a number of events and encouraging people…
The National Trust for Scotland, which owns two important properties in our National Parks, Ben Lomond and Mar Lodge, was in the news again last week because of its latest financial crisis (Herald “NTS faces death by 1000 cuts “). The script is wearily familiar: the need to re-organise to make ends meet and cut…
I was in the Lake District last weekend, camping in Borrowdale, where there are at least 8 campsites in the 12 kilometres south of Keswick with not a holiday chalet or caravan in site. The contrast with the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, where the National Park Authority has granted provision for much of…
Cameron McNeish has some interesting comments to make on National Parks and the political priorities for the new Scottish Government in the latest Walkhighland newsletter http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/political-priorities/0014950/ In it he states he believes the reason the SNP did not commit to more National Parks was lack of cash – or to put it another way because…
The failure of Aileen McLeod to be re-elected to the Scottish Parliament means there will be a new Minister for the Environment in the new Scottish Government. This post – which is responsible for our National Parks – has existed, under one title or another, since the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Dr McLeod was…
In London, what appears to be a very successful campaign is developing to turn it into the world’s first National Park city. The proposal won the support of the Labour, Tory, Liberal Democrat and Green candidates for the London Mayor election. Its proponents, from health experts to nature conservationists, architects to geographers, are now trying…
Like many people, I have not had a good thing to say about the banks for several years. Following the financial crisis, I came to the conclusion that the banks should not be allowed to issue paper currency or create electronic money, as debt, out of thin air. Such money is often used in socially…
The Scottish Labour Party issued its election manifesto on Wednesday, for some strange reason long after the other political parties. Judging by the 2.7k hits on its website there has not been that much interest but, unlike the SNP, it does make commitments in respect to National Parks: ” Scottish Labour in government established…
Judging by the election manifestos, our political parties do not see National Parks as a political issue issue or believe they are so far down the political agenda that there is no need to say anything meaningful about them. I think this is not just unfortunate, its a mistake politically. Part of any vision for…
Our current ‘national’ parks in Scotland are little more than a fiasco. I detest even using that term to describe what the last Labour administration delivered and what the subsequent SNP administration still supports, as what they have given us are not real national parks, but a farrago masquerading as a façade that is parodying…
Last week, the Tory Government at Westminster published an 8 – Point Plan for National Parks in England http://www.cnp.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploadsfiles/National%20Parks%20Plan.pdf In the introduction it states the Government has an “ambition to put National Parks at the heart of the way we think about the environment”. Contrast this level of interest with this week’s Political Hustings…
KPMG, one of the big four accountancy firms, have acted as internal auditors for our two National Parks from 2011/12. Just why public authorities would want to appoint KPMG, who have as auditors failed to pick major failings with banks such as HBOS or the Coop and organisations such as FIFA, is a mystery…