The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority on Monday 24th October approved what it called a camping development strategy, all 27 pages of it, along with a ten page Board paper. Prior to the meeting I showed (see here) that the strategy would create a huge shortfall in camping places in the National Park…
Tag: camping
I have just returned from a rock climbing holiday in Spain, a first for me. Its a beautiful country although the coast between Alicante and where we were staying, inland from Valencia, has been well and truly been trashed. Its not difficult though to find examples of facilities and treatment of visitors which are far…
Following the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s planning approval of the Loch Chon campsite (https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/09/26/loch-chon-con-goes-planning/) I submitted further FOI requests to try and understand better what I believe is a stupid decision and a waste of resources. For a long time now been treating all my queries about the management of the…
The Loch Lomond National Park Authority Board is considering their long-awaited camping plan, which they are now gracing with the title “Camping Development Strategy” at their meeting this afternoon (see here) and (here). Its 27 pages, full of pretty graphics and based on assertions for which there is no evidence (as I have established through…
On Saturday I went rock climbing on Ben An, the first time in many years, with my friend Mike who had never climbed there. En route from Callander I checked whether anything had been done about the farm litter beside the road opposite Loch Venachar House, home to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
The proposed Flamingo Land development of the west riverside side at Balloch was covered by an interesting article in the Sunday Herald (and I say that not just because I was quoted in it) which made links between the proposed camping ban and the proposed development. Ultimately this is about what National Parks are for…
Today, the LLTNPA will decide its planning application to itself for a campsite at Loch Chon. There are now 54 documents associated with this proposal and I hope the members of the Planning Committee read the objections as well as the Committee Report. There are several issues about the campsite which are very relevant…
– by Ross MacBeath At the public meeting with Strathard Community Council, Gordon Watson, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Chief Executive, tried to justify the creation of a large campsite at Loch Chon by referring to the campsite at Sallochy, on east Loch Lomond. While this is also on Forestry Commission land,…
If you have passed up or down the A82 this summer you may have noticed Lochs and Glens buses parked overnight in the Inveruglas car park – I have several times. This is one of the car parks where the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority want to introduce parking charges which will be…
On Wednesday, a day after posting an email from Strathard Community Council saying its members had voted not to object to the planning application, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority published a Report recommending approval of the application by its Planning Committee. This will meet on Monday 26th September (conveniently on a holiday…
I passed this fire last Sunday at the start of a walk round the Glen Kendrum horseshoe, near Lochearnhead. It was still burning when we came back 6 hours later. By chance, Ross MacBeath had just passed on to me an FOI response he had made to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park…
“As part of the plans which will come into effect for the 2017 season, feasibility work is already well advanced at Loch Chon in The Trossachs on land managed by Forest Enterprise Scotland. It is proposed that the picturesque site at Loch Chon will accommodate 30 tent pitches alongside facilities including a fresh water supply,…
I have been asking the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority what criteria it would use to decide the planning application it is making to itself for a campsite at Loch Chon. Among the issues is that the Your Park proposals to develop new campsites is not consistent with the Park’s proposed Development Plan…
I was in Glen Lyon yesterday, enjoying the weather window in the earlier part of the day, to run over a few hills but must confess to thinking a few times about my last post. I was worried if I had got the wording right so it was re-assuring to return and see there has…
“It is not felling or fire that destroys a pine wood, but overgrazing of the ground beneath and beyond, whether by sheep or by deer.” Chris Smout On Thursday Rothiemurchus made a Facebook post of a burning granny pine and the following comment: “A sad day on Rothiemurchus today. One of our beautiful…
Following my post on the LLTNPA’s unfortunate decision to use National Park’s week to launch its new litter enforcement powers, when other National Parks across the UK were celebrating the theme of adventure, there was an excellent letter in the Herald today from James Fraser, Chair of the Friends of Loch Lomond and Trossachs. (While…
In my first post on the proposed campsite at Loch Chon and camping in Strathard, I included the two photos below and questioned why, since its since its impossible to camp along most of the north shore of Loch Ard, this area had ever been included in the proposed camping ban? …
A fair amount of information has come to light in the last three weeks about the LLTNPA’s camping plans which raises serious further concerns about both the adequacy of those plans and the whole camping byelaw proposal. Camping in Strathard It says a lot about the LLTNPA that they have kept their camping…
Dear LLTNPA, I was interested to see in May that meters had been installed at the carpark in Inveruglas. I appreciate you are short of money but it seems to me particularly mean to advertise the new wooden structure at Inveruglas, as part of Scotland’s scenic routes, and then charge people for…
Dear LLTNPA, In May I visited the Loch Venachar quay site off the Invertrossachs Road where you installed a new carpark with gates last year, just outside Invertrossachs House, the home of your convener Linda McKay. I note that the trees on the quay, which were not in the original plans, were growing particularly…
Dear LLTNPA, I spotted these tents at Bein Glas campsite on Sunday 26th June at 9.30 am. They looked abandoned to me and sure enough they were still there late afternoon. When you published all those photos of abandoned tents by the lochshores you implied that banning camping outwith controlled areas would stop these problems…
One of the objections I submitted to the LLTNPA’s development plan Response – Development Plan and Camping was it used totally different terminology to describe campsites than what has been used in the Your Park consultation – a case of one part of the Park not talking to another. (See https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/06/07/park-authority-applies-planning-permission-unwanted-campsite-loch-chon/) I emailed the Park’s…
On Friday I received a response (EIR 2016-018 Response) to the questions I had raised about the proposed north Loch Venachar campsite. This was approved in the Five Lochs Management Plan of 2012 but the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park had failed to deliver it as planned in 2013-14. (For background see https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/05/27/disappearing-campsites-loch-lomond-trossachs-national-park-development-plan/.) I…
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…
The Herald yesterday (8th June) carried a story that has now been recycled several times about the Mountains and People Project which is investing £6.1m in footpaths in our new National Parks. The new angle was hillwalkers are being asked to report footpath problems, far from a new idea but good stuff. What was new…