The revised Planning Application for the Ben More Hydro scheme (see here) is to be considered by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Planning Committee tomorrow (see here). I had intended to speak to my objection but have been called elsewhere. While there are provisions for objectors to nominate substitutes, there are none to allow…
Tag: hill tracks
I had walked up Glen Prosen a couple of weeks ago to look at the new roads at the head of the Glen but was prompted by the 26 traps we saw to blog first on wildlife and trapping in the Cairngorms National Park (see here). This post will took at the two new roads…
Today the South Area Planning Committee of Highland Council is taking a (road-side) look at the sites of all seven proposed Glen Etive Hydro Schemes, and a further hydro scheme in Glen Coe. Then, at a special meeting on Wednesday at Council HQ in Inverness they will take a decision on the applications (see here…
I was up in Glen Clova with friends for the weekend and on Saturday, which was wild and very windy, went for a walk up Glen Prosen with Helen Todd who works as campaigns and policy manager for Ramblers Scotland. Our intention was to take a closer look at the restoration of the hydro…
Adam Watson and the Royal family On 24 Jan I was preparing a presentation (see here) to the planning committee of the Cairngorms National Park. This was in support of objections to a proposed new hill road on the Balavil estate in Badenoch. My preparation involved reference to material on hill tracks and roads published…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Planning Committee, which all Board Members sit on, will consider the Balavil Estate’s Planning Application to build 5km of new road into the Monadhliath Wild Land Area (see here for all papers). The December CNPA Planning Committee rightly agreed to defer the application because it had not been advertised properly…
I was up on Ben Ledi on a fine day just before Xmas and my walk got me thinking about the cumulative impact of the new run of river hydro schemes. There are three on the flanks of Ben Ledi: Gleannn Casaig to the West, Stank Glen to the north east and Milton Glen to…
Following my post about the upgrade of the existing hill roads at Balavil (see here) , this post takes a look at the Balavil Estate’s proposal to drive 5km of new road into the heart of the Monadliath Wild Land Area. In December the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee delayed the application to allow…
Following my critique of the proposed Allt Mheuran hydro scheme, this post takes a look at a further three of the hydro schemes proposed for Glen Etive which I walked around on 21st December. Allt Fhaolain The Allt Fhaolain is the second hydro scheme in Glen Etive where Highland Council required the developer to submit…
Following my post (see here) on the revisions to the Glen Etive hydro schemes, on the shortest day I went to take a closer look to compare what is being proposed compared with what is on the ground. I walked over the land included in four of the seven schemes, including the two subject to new…
A classic way to get developments through the planning system under the radar is to advertise them just before Xmas. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority did just that on Friday when it issued a letter (see here) to people who had objected to the Ben More hydro scheme stating that the planning…
Last Friday, the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee agreed to their officers’ recommendation that the deadline for comments on the proposed 5km road over the Monadhliath and through a Wild Land Area should be extended until 10th January. That is very welcome. It rectifies CNPA’s failure to consult properly (see here) and gives people time…
The disappearance of two further tagged hen harriers within the Cairngorms National Park was entirely predictable. Its almost certainly blown apart the commendable target the Cairngorms National Park Authority set in its National Park Partnership Plan “To eliminate raptor persecution”. That should not be a surprise. The 2017-22 Plan failed to tackle the underlying…
The proliferation of vehicle hill tracks in our National Parks, whether agreed through our planning system or not, has been a constant theme of Parkswatch over the last two and a half years. The first thing that we need to do to address the problem is to bring all vehicle tracks into the planning…
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…
Eighteen months ago I blogged about the Keltie Water hydro scheme north of Callander based on photos supplied by Derek Sime from the Munro Society (see here) concluding that it was one of the better hydro schemes I had seen in the National Park. I found out last week that it has now been shortlisted…
Last week Community Land Scotland, who have the ear of the Scottish Government, was reported in the Herald as claiming “Rural communities are being “airbrushed” out of Scotland’s rugged landscapes by policymakers who care more about maintaining an artificial wilderness” (see here). One of CLS’s central arguments is that protection of wild land is preventing…
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 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…
After my recent posts on the lack of agricultural (see here) and (see here) hydro tracks in the Pyrenees National Park and surrounding protected areas and how we could learn from this in Scotland, I thought it worth reminding readers what best practice in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park currently looks like. The…
While the central Pyrenees has many beautiful natural mountain lakes, there has been significant hydro development for over 100 years and many lakes have been created or extended by dams. We came across hydro schemes on many days of our two week walk, even in remote places. In an interesting article (see here –…
The French Pyrenean National Park and the Ordesa and Mont Perdido National Park are much smaller than our two National Parks in Scotland but surrounded by large buffer zones where the National Park influences what activities take place and how land is managed. In the National Parks themselves there is no permanent human habitation and…
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,…
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…
Close up, the track to the three Allt a’ Chuillinn hydro intakes, which form part of the Derrydarroch hydro scheme in Glen Falloch, does not look too bad. Its been significantly narrowed since construction, the sides covered with vegetation and a central strip of vegetation placed down the middle. Its quite a pleasant walking…