While access to the countryside has been shut down, thousands of people have lost their jobs and some now are starving in their homes (see here), while health workers, social care workers and bus drivers have been losing their lives because of a lack of Personal Protective Equipment, planning in the Cairngorms National Park…
Tag: Cairn Gorm
The announcement yesterday that Highlands and Islands Enterprise is submitting a Planning Application to repair the Funicular (see here), despite still not knowing what this would cost, was predictable. As far back as September of last year, HIE made it clear that their intention was to repair the Funicular. This was evidenced by Audit Scotland’s…
Just 14 months after Cairngorm Mountain went bust, the company that operated it and got away scot free has gone into administration. That should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the Natural Retreats saga in the Highlands. This post takes a look at the latest financial losses attributable to Highland and Islands…
Sometime between August 2019 and February 2020, the webpage (see here) isn’t dated, the Highlands and Islands Enterprises (HIE) website was updated with the following information on Cairn Gorm under “regional projects”:- No one can disagree with the first two paragraphs (Ed. see above!] although in para.2 the wording should have been “the WINTER economy”,…
It’s now 16 months since the Cairngorm funicular closed and almost 15 months since the operator (Cairngorm Mountain Ltd) went into liquidation, but of course as any regular reader of this website will know, the problems on Cairn Gorm go back much further. At last, after all of HIE’s dithering and delay (see here) the…
Full details of the job vacancy can be found on the HIE website (https://www.hie.co.uk/about-us/vacancies/cairngorm-project-lead/) Questions raised by this new job advertisement include: How has HIE been managing (or is it mis-managing) Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd and planning the…
Two very interesting articles on Parkswatch by Alistair Bell (see here) and Drennan Watson (see here) go some way towards explaining some of what has gone on and is going on at Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL). Alistair Bell says skiers are partly to blame because nobody really questioned what was happening until the Save…
Ray Sefton asserts, in a comment on my post on the reason for the disaster at Cairn Gorm (see here), that opposition by environmental groups caused highly damaging conditions to be inserted in the Visitor Management Plan for Cairn Gorm post the construction of the funicular railway. In particular, he asserts the imposition of a…
In 2018 and again in 2019 the SE Group were commissioned by Highlands and Islands Enterprises (HIE) to report on a sustainable, economically viable business plan (see here) for the redevelopment of the Cairngorm ski resort with its knock on economic benefits to the local communities. Since then a new report into reducing snow cover…
Alistair Bell’s open letter published on 2nd January (see here) was fascinating as an insider’s tale of what has happened to downhill skiing on Cairn Gorm. But I disagree with his final conclusion. Basically, he tackles the old issue “Cock-up or Conspiracy” and decides it was a conspiracy along the lines of the Gas Lighting…
[Parkswatch is very pleased to publish this open letter from Canada about the situation at Cairn Gorm] Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person, or organization, seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and…
Thanks to Phil Swainson, an occasional contributor to this blog, for forwarding me the Guardian’s long read yesterday about how Alpine Ski resorts are using snow making “to battle with climate change” (see here). Its recommended reading for anyone concerned about the future of snowsports at Cairn Gorm or who is concerned about how…
This post takes a look behind Highland and Island Enterprise’s disastrous management of the Cairngorm mountain business, which includes: the failed strategy of removing other uplift capacity in an attempt to make the funicular pay; the gross errors in awarding the last operating contract to Natural Retreats (see here) and (here); the failure to manage…
The Planning Application to “smooth and regrade land” to create a new beginner’s ski area at Cairn Gorm will be considered by the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee tomorrow. Officers have recommended the application should be approved. While the revised application does go some way to address issues that have been raised on…
This post reveals two further examples of how CairnGorm Mountain is being mismanaged. These confirm that there is something rotten at both Highlands & Islands Enterprises (HIE) and Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd (CMSL). Both these organisations are in desperate need of a clean-out if what was once Scotland’s premier ski resort is to return…
Two days ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s publication of research on projected future snow lie attracted a fair amount of publicity, with headlines misleadingly suggesting that snow could be gone from the Cairngorms by 2080 (see here for example). That research is due to be considered by the CNPA Board on Friday. It forms…
In March 2019 the First Minister of Scotland declared a Global Climate Emergency. The Scottish Government has set a net-zero emissions target for 2045 and to increase the targets for 2030 to 70% and to 90% in 2040. These are ambitious targets which will certainly not be achieved simply by stating them and the Scottish…
The Cairn Gorm ski area: Voluntary Organisations call for an open debate about the future A group of voluntary organisations (The Cairngorms Campaign, Campaign for a Better Cairngorm, North East Mountain Trust, Ramblers Scotland and the Scottish Wild Land Group.) has produced a ‘vision’ for the future of the mountain (below). Key elements include the…
Highlands and Islands Enterprises (HIE) last month released estimates for the costs of removal and repair of the Funicular Railway (see here) which was taken out of operation 15 months ago after concerns were raised about the safety of the structure. The “high end” estimate for removal is £13.3M, with a provision of £9.6M in…
After Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced that the cost of repairing the funicular would be cheaper than the cost they claimed would be needed to remove it, I asked them for the basis of this claim. Then, when the response revealed very little, I requested a formal review of their decision to refuse the information…
Background On the 27 January 2019 I applied to Highlands and Islands Enterprise for the two “ADAC Structures” Inspection reports which resulted in the Funicular Railway being closed. The redacted reports were finally released on Friday 11th October after a request to the Scottish Information Commissioner. This post will look at the Funicular Railway Inspection…
The Funicular Railway on Cairn Gorm has now been out of service for more than a year. Its future remains unclear although Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) have said that it is their intention to have it repaired. Parkswatch has previously had a look at this from the point of view of skiers (see here) …
[A version of this post appeared as a letter in the Press and Journal on 14th September in response to a letter from Gordon Benton on 3rd September] A number of people and interests are advocating expansion of the facilities on Cairn Gorm to include a hill station to solve ongoing financial problems. It would…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority’s consultation on its new Economic Action Plan, 2019-22, will close on Friday (see here). While there are some good things in the plan, this post argues its exhortation for people to work together won’t work under our current system and it fails to address the one economic matter over which the…
In theory the Cairngorms Connect project appears to be a good thing. Four organisations are working together across 600 square kilometres of the western Cairngorms to deliver the rewilding of marsh, river, forest and mountain habitats. These organisations, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forest and Land Scotland and Wildland…