The Scottish Government will soon be asked to support Highlands and Islands Enterprise by approving the use of the considerable public funds that will be required to facilitate the repair costs. A figure of between £10-15m has been quoted. The public are entitled to expect that government ministers will be in possession of ALL of…
Tag: HIE
(This is the last of four posts see here, here, and here about how the £14-20 million proposed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise to repair the funicular could be better far better spent on snow sports within the geographical area for which they are responsible). Proposal A new triple chairlift adjacent to the Wall T-bar…
Morag and I went up Cairn Gorm Thursday 6th August via Windy Ridge and down the Fiaccaill of Coire Cas, all in glorious weather. We started out just after 10.30 but even so met numerous folk going up on Windy Ridge and, even by that time, others coming down. On the whole route we met,…
(This is the third of four posts – see here and here – on alternatives to HIE proposals to repair the funicular that would have far greater benefits to snowsports in the Cairngorms and Scotland as a whole) Proposal A new medium speed quad chairlift with loading carpet which would replace the Harrier and Falcon…
On 12th June 2020, the Cairngorm National Park Authority Panning Committee gave approval for the installation of solar powered entry/exit barriers to the Coire Cas car park on Cairn Gorm. Once these have been installed then parking charges for the Cas car park will become mandatory between June and October from 2021 onwards Parkswatch has…
PROPOSAL (For the first in this series of four posts on wintersports alternatives to the funicular see here). A new high speed detachable express chairlift close to the alignment of the former White Lady T-bar and extending downslope to near the foot of the Sheiling Rope Tow, with installed snow making on upper Home Road…
No sooner had I complimented Forest and Land Scotland on how they had opened up their car parks in Glen More to campervans (see here) than they did an about turn as a result of events on the weekend that followed (see above). FLS is now trying to close car parks in Glen More to…
This is the first of four posts for Parkswatch Scotland (summarised on the Winter Highland forum) about alternative short term options to fixing the Cairn Gorm funicular. The first post will deal with some of the issues raised in my planning objection to its repair (see here for background). It will be followed by three …
It’s a well documented fact that the CairnGorm Mountain Business Strategy which has the Funicular Railway at its centre has been a demonstrable failure. The principle source of income has been the sale of tickets, summer and winter, to use the funicular. The number of passengers carried has never been anywhere near the forecast levels…
On 13th July Highlands and Islands Enterprise announced that Cairngorm Mountain was re-opening today (see here). While the Scottish Government had been advising people they could travel unlimited distances by car since the weekend of 4th July, HIE decided to keep the Coire Cas car park, the most popular access point to the northern side…
The Ciste building is a derelict eyesore and should be removed. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) own the land and building and it is therefore their responsibility to take the necessary action. Complete demolition and landscaping of the ground might seem like the most obvious and easiest answer but it isn’t quite that simple. The…
Audit Scotland’s report into HIE’s management of Cairn Gorm since 2008 was published two weeks ago (see here). The first two parts, on the outsourcing of Cairngorm Mountain Ltd to Natural Retreats and subsequent management of the contract, are a disappointment but not a surprise They completely exonerate HIE. Effectively Audit Scotland’s message is that…
Today, Friday 12th June, the Cairngorms National Park Authority will consider HIE’s latest ill-conceived plans for Cairn Gorm. You can view the deliberations live at 14.30 here [now on YouTube (see here)]. Two reports to the Planning Committee (see here for Committee papers), just two weeks after their last meeting, predictably recommend approval of HIE’s…
Yesterday, following a last ditch post (see here) in the early hours (which I circulated to all Board Members), the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee nodded through Highland and Island Enterprise’s planning application to repair the funicular. There was no formal vote. None of us who have been campaigning against the repair of the…
Letter Strathy 14th May from Parkswatch contributor Graham Garfoot. HIE has refused to release the engineering reports on which the proposals to repair the funicular are based. Highland and Island Enterprise’s Planning Application to repair the funicular is to be considered Friday morning (see here) and Cairngorms National Park Planning Officers have recommended…
Scottish Government changes to planning processes The Scottish Government has been urging all planning authorities, including our National Parks, to maintain their planning system as a top priority. Planning Authorities are being urged to use all of their discretionary powers backed up by the Coronavirus (Scotland) Act 2020 to keep the planning system going (see…
The Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust Ltd was incorporated (see here for information on companies house) on 17 October 2017 for the expressed purpose of gaining ownership and control of the Cairngorm Mountain business. The Trust has Articles of Association that are fully compliant with the Land Reform Legislation and as such it is a…
This post takes a look at the scope of Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s planning application (see here for papers) to repair the funicular, its proposals for accessing the areas where they say work is required and the impact that this will have on the natural environment. The scope of the Planning Application Graham Garfoot’s post (see…
Highlands and Islands Enterprises (HIE) are at it again as evidenced by the latest planning application, to repair the funicular (see here for papers). It has been noted many times in the past that HIE have a habit of pre-empting decisions being made about operations at the Cairngorm Mountain ski resort, currently being operated under…
Many of you might have missed an interesting article from the P&J dated 19 March (see here). This article revealed that HIE had allocated almost £2million to the Cairngorm Mountain ski centre. Having read this article, I decided to check out what Highland and Islands Enterprise’s currently published funding approvals were. The list of HIE’s…
The Planning Application “Engineering Work for Strengthening Funicular Viaduct” was lodged with Highland Council on 13 March 2020 and called-in by the Cairngorm National Park Authority, on 23 March 2020, for determination by them (see here for planning documents). This post takes a critical look at some aspects of what is being proposed. The Planning…
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…
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”,…