Tag: Governance

April 23, 2018 Nick Kempe No comments exist

Our National Parks Authorities are two small cogs in the much wider structures which govern life in Scotland and subject to similar pressures and influences as other such organisations, whether austerity or the ever increasing trend towards centralisation of government in Scotland.   Many of the comments made by speakers at the “Act as if we…

March 16, 2018 Nick Kempe 1 comment

The Cairngorms National Park Authority meeting today has a fairly limited agenda (see here): an informative report from their Chief Executive on what has been going on; a four year corporate plan, a one year operational plan together, somewhat strangely, with a (welcome) paper on not paying Board Members who fail to attend meetings; a communications…

March 15, 2018 Nick Kempe 1 comment

The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Meeting on Monday morning was a laughable experience (see here for all papers).  The camping byelaws now dominate almost everything the National Park does, even if LLTNPA Board members don’t appear to appreciate this, to the exclusion of what it should be doing.  The laughs came…

March 13, 2018 Nick Kempe 2 comments

Companies House, the part of Government responsible for registering and dissolving companies and filing information, including accounts, required by the Companies Act 2006 is under-resourced and ineffective.   As a result often basic information which would help the public, shareholders or public agencies to understand what is really going on in a company is not available,…

February 17, 2018 Nick Kempe 1 comment

Until a couple of days ago, there was NO information on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority website about Board or Committee Meetings this year, no dates, nothing.  I had written to the LLTNPA about this a couple of weeks ago, only to be reminded that the October 2017 Board Meeting had agreed…

January 30, 2018 Nick Kempe No comments exist

This post explores considers very recent developments in what is going on at Cairngorm Mountain, following earlier posts (see here),  how this is symptomatic of wider ills in how companies are allowed to operate and the implications for the proposed development at the Ptarmigan.   Unfortunately being in a National Park offers no immunity to this…

January 9, 2018 Nick Kempe 1 comment

I start with a belief that how the land in our National Parks is managed is central to what they do. Currently I have an appeal being investigated by the Scottish Information Commissioner about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s refusal to provide me or to make public any information from the land management…

December 28, 2017 Nick Kempe 2 comments

While  the Cairngorms National Park Authority took a significant step forward on planning enforcement and consequently the credibility of the planning system a couple of weeks ago (see here),  the planning system in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park fell further into disrepute on 18th December when a permanent access track to the Ledard…

December 19, 2017 Nick Kempe 2 comments

For the last 18 months parkswatchscotland has been highlighting the failures of both our National Parks to protect the landscape and more specifically to ensure that planning conditions are enforced.   On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee, on which all Board Members sit, approved a plan  to address the issues.  Its extremely welcome and…

December 14, 2017 Nick Kempe 6 comments

I have been trying since the summer to obtain copies of the “Land Management Plans” which the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park claim to have agreed with certain landowners (my appeal is with the Scottish Information Commissioner).  The content of these plans seems to me important for understanding how far the LLTNPA are getting…

December 5, 2017 Nick Kempe 2 comments

Yesterday’s post on signage in our National Parks that contravenes access rights was published before I had read the Loch Lomond and Trossachs’s National Park’s response to an information request I had made for papers presented to the Local Access Forum this year (I received the response at the end of last week).   The photos…

October 11, 2017 Nick Kempe 2 comments

Looking at the papers for the Cairngorms National Park Board meeting which took place last Friday (see here), I was struck by the significant differences between the way it and the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority operate.   While many (mostly retiring?) members of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority have…

August 22, 2017 Nick Kempe 11 comments

On Friday, to no-one’s surprise, the Cairngorms National Park Authority unanimously approved the revised planning application for An Camas Mor and in effect gave Johnnie Grant a further three years to meet planning requirements.   Paradoxically,  this new decision, I believe makes An Camas Mor  less likely than ever to go ahead.  This is mainly because…

June 21, 2017 Nick Kempe No comments exist

In a post on Monday (see here) I originally suggested that as well as the photo on the front cover of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs draft Annual Report being unrepresentative, it might have been taken from outwith an area where camping was allowed.  I was wrong and I apologise for this.  The LLTNPA photo was…

June 19, 2017 Nick Kempe No comments exist

The photo on the cover of the draft LLTNPA annual report, to be considered at the Board Meeting today, shows just the sort of places people would like to camp.   Short turf by the loch shores where they can fish or paddle and which is exposed to the breeze – good for keeping the midges…

June 5, 2017 Nick Halls 5 comments

By Nick Halls, resident of Ardentinny The changing landscape of the National Park   I monitor the evolution of the Bye Laws and the incoherent manner of the implementation, by means of observation, talking to campers, visiting designated sites, reports contributed by ‘Parkswatchscotland’, and articles in magazines of Representative bodies of the physical activities in…

May 17, 2017 Nick Kempe No comments exist

That campsites can become “political” issues is demonstrated in Strathard where Fergus Wood, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Member, lost his Council seat on 4th May (see here).  On 11th May he withdrew his planning application for a new campsite by the shores of Loch Ard on Ledard Farm (see here)….

May 10, 2017 Nick Kempe 8 comments

One of primary justifications the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority made for camping byelaws was that they were needed to address the problem of encampments on laybys by caravans and motorhomes over the summer. In their news release (see here) about the approval of the camping byelaws the LLTNPA included the following statement:…