On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee is due to consider the application by Natural Retreats, financed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, for a dry ski slope at Cairngorm (see here). It hard to conceive of a more inappropriate development but officers have recommended that Board Members accept the proposal. The issues are…
Tag: CNPA
I have followed some of the Parkswatch blogs about the awful hydro tracks around Glen Falloch (see here) and seen them for myself from the hills. In July 2017 we were staying in Lochcarron and I was horrified to see a hydro scheme at Coulags at the start of the walk up Maol Chean-dearg. This…
Parkswatch has commented several times on the differences between our two National Parks and the evidence now suggests that they are going in two different directions, one generally positive the other disastrous. This was very evident from their Board Meetings which took place in September. The agenda of the September Board Meeting of the Loch…
I had previously arranged to go for a walk to look at the state of Cairngorm yesterday. Coincidentally, this was a day after HIE announced (see here for News Release) that the funicular would be closed for another month to allow “further investigation” of cracks that have appeared and in the same week that the…
Scotland has almost no natural treeline and lacks the montane scrub zone which is found in other mountainous areas such as Norway and the Alps because of a long history of overgrazing (by sheep and deer) and excessive burning. It is therefore very welcome that the Cairngorms National Park Authority attaches a high priority to…
Three weeks ago the Cairngorms National Park Authority decided to approve the retrospective planning application for a section of the unlawful Glen Banchor track. Its a positive thing that members of the CNPA planning Committee are so concerned about the proliferation of hill tracks – Dave Fallows was right to describe the Glen Banchor…
The consultation on the draft Cairngorms Nature Action Plan closes tomorrow on Friday 14th September. A month ago (see here) I considered the context for the plan and the proposed priorities for landscape scale conservation: farmland, freshwater restoration, woodland expansion and peatland . This post will look at the other two professed aims of the…
Following coverage of Highland and Islands Enterprise and Natural Retreats failures to act on health and safety recommendations from independent consultants about the ski life infrastructure (see here), HIE refused to provide a copy of the latest report (they had provided two previous reports), citing commerical confidentiality and intellectual property rights. Malcom Garfoot appealed and…
Hydroelectric power generation features prominently in the firmament of the renewable energy icons of the ‘green movement’ and indeed among its most avid supporters, there is almost a zealous fervency about it, bordering on religiosity about its promulgation, indeed one tantamount to a holy dictum of hydro. There is no doubt, in a political environment…
After recent criticisms of SNH on Parkswatch, for example their failure to assess properly the impact of all seven Glen Etive hydro schemes on the landscape (see here), it is a pleasure to report on a consultation which could, if the proposals were widely adopted, make a real difference to landscape protection. The consultation is…
The consultation on the second five year Cairngorms Nature Action Plan was launched on 20th June and closes on Friday 14th September at 5pm. The draft plan is easy to read (just 36 pages with big print and lots of photos) and there in an online survey form which focuses on whether the aims, objectives…
At the end of June the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee considered the responses to its public consultation on Local Development Plan, the Main Issues Report, which has previously been covered on Parkswatch (see here for example). There were 331 responses and these are summarised and considered in a 247 page report to the…
The Ordesa gorge is one of the great natural wonders of the Pyrenees, a sort of European version of the Grand Canyon but carved out by ice not water. It was designated as Spain’s first National Park a hundred years ago in August 1918 and since then has also been designated a World Heritage Site…
Between 18th and 21st September the Cairngorms National Park Authority are hosting the Europarc conference (see here) for “protected area professionals” . The theme of this year’s conference is “reconnecting young people with nature”. All attendees are being encouraged to bring a young person as part of the International Year of Young People and my…
The replacement extension to the Cairngorms National Park Authority HQ, which is now close to completion, has been attracting some critical comments in the Strathy. The building, which the Cairngorms National Park Authority leases, is owned by Reidhaven, more commonly known as Seafield Estates, which owns much…
I am away for a two week walking holiday through the Pyrenees and, while I have scheduled a few pieces for the first week, am then going to take a complete break. I’d like to thank regular readers for your support and comments and apologise that I have been unable to cover half the issues…
Restoration on North Drumochter Estate section of the Beauly Denny Anyone who has driven along the A9 recently and taken a passing look out the window will be aware of the extensive scars across the hillside north of Drumochter summit, scars created by the Beauly Denny construction tracks which SSE were supposed to have fully…
Savill’s, acting on behalf of the Pitmain Estate, submitted in early June a retrospective Planning Application to Highland Council for the new unlawful track in Glen Banchor which I had featured last November and which I had reported to the Cairngorms National Park Authority. They had been forced to do this because the CNPA had,…
Skiers won’t be the only people amazed at Natural Retreats’ announcement that they were – after consultation with public agencies but NOT the public – going to introduce car parking charges at Cairngorm last week. While the basic £2 charge adds insult to the injury done to skiers at Cairngorm by Natural Retreats’ last winter…
Yesterday I was out running with my daughter over the hills west of Glen Shee, trying to avoid the rain further west, as part of preparations for her first mountain marathon. We headed out over the Cairnwell, across Carn Gheoidh and then descended north west of Carn Binnein to the Allt Elrig heading for…
A planning system stacked in favour of developers The Cairngorms National Park Authority called in the planning application (see here) for a large extension to the Ptarmigan Restaurant at Cairngorm financed out of public funds on the 14th May. Under their current standing orders they will only report on Objections to Planning Applications which are…
Tilhill Forestry is changing its approach to access A few days after my post on forestry industry signs and access rights, I was contacted by Kirsty Adams, Head of Health and Safety at Tilhill Forestry asking to speak because “Tilhill Forestry are currently running a public awareness of safety in the forest project and one of…
On April 26th 2018 the media (see here for example) reported a fire on the Glen Tanar Estate, Deeside, flames on a front 5km long and at a remote location. Nick Kempe contacted the Cairngorms Campaign, of which I am the Convener, about this and I agreed to visit the site and did so in…
There have been numerous recent reports of failures to enforce long term planning obligations within the Cairngorms National Park – these are conditions of planning permissions which remain in place after the permitted work or development has been completed. They often cover the re-instatement of temporary works after the work has been completed or the…
Reviewing our National Parks Ten days ago, writing in the Sunday Telegraph (see here) or (see here for Guardian article), the Westminster Environment Secretary, Michael Gove, who currently has no powers to speak of in Scotland, announced a review of National Parks in England chaired by Julian Glover: “The goal of Julian’s review is not…