The successful challenge to Argyll and Bute’s car parking charges on Mull Back in April the local community in Mull and Iona protested against the imposition of new £9 a day car parking charges by Argyll and Bute Council at Fionnphort (see here). Last week they forced the Council to back down, in part it…
Tag: LLTNPA
Its now over 6 weeks since Scottish Natural Heritage opened its consultation on the General License (see here) which runs until Weds 9th October. This post takes a look at the consultation, how the licensing system for killing wild birds in Scotland operates and argues that different and higher standards should apply in our National…
In the first bit of really welcome news (see here) to have emerged from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park for some time, officers have recommended that the entire Flamingo Land Planning Application is refused. This includes both the proposals for land owned by Scottish Enterprise and the National Park itself on the Riverside…
Last week news of yet another proposed major development on the western shores of Loch Lomond emerged. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority published its response to the pre-application consultation proposals on their planning portal (see here) and this then received coverage in the Helensburgh Advertiser (see here). This post explains why the…
In the run up to the National Park’s hearing on their Planning Application on Tuesday 24th September, Flamingo Land appear to have decided to go onto the offensive. Besides their attempt to discredit West Dunbartonshire Councillors objection to the application (see here) and (here), which I will consider further below, they have been feeding more…
In March there was quite a debate on Facebook – 130 comments – about work that had recently been completed on a 1km section of the West Highland Way by Keilator Farm in Glen Falloch just before it reaches Crianlarich (see here). To their credit Gordon Baillie Contracting Ltd have not tried to remove any…
The first reason West Dunbartonshire Council gave for objecting to the Riverside and Woodbank House Planning application was that local Councillors regarded it as “overdevelopment and departure from the Local Development Plan”. In planning terms this is very important because Local Development Plans are meant to set a framework for what type of development takes…
The arrangements for taking the planning decision On 29th July the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority issued a brief news statement setting a date for their Board visit to the West Riverside site (Monday 24th September) and for the Board Hearing and meeting which will decide the Flamingo Land Planning Application (Tuesday 25th…
After my post on floods and flood prevention within our National Parks (see here), which included a brief postscript on Balloch in response to a reader’s comment, I have been sent more photos of flooding on the Old Luss Rd, which runs under the Woodbank House part of the proposed Flamingo Land development. The updated…
As the downpours continue, the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, should be asking herself why so much of the recent flood damage has been within our National Parks? Examples include disruption and damage to the rail network near Carrbridge in the Cairngorms (see here), at Ardlui and north of Crianlarich in the…
I have been thinking and discussing with various contacts the claim by James Stuart, convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, that it conducts a risk based approach to planning enforcement (see here). The evidence from the Donich Water hydro scheme, situated above Lochgoilhead, which I visited earlier this year, suggests the…
[Parkswatch is delighted to host this guest blog by Dr Tom Scanlon who has been researching litter in the Clyde Estuary www.mts-cfd.com] Let’s talk rubbish. An estimated 62,000 items of plastic marine litter make their way on to the coastline around Arrochar each year [1]. Among the questions I asked myself included; how do…
Five months ago I blogged about the fly tipping which had been left for months by Loch Iubhair in Glen Dochart and commented that I hoped the Park’s new Litter Prevention Manager would help to address the issues (see here). In the last three weeks Dave Morris twice visited the parking and picnic area, which…
The night before going on holiday a couple of weeks ago, I was on the Question and Answer Panel organised by Patagonia following the showing of their fantastic film Blue Heart in Edinburgh (see here for film – 45 mins). The discussion (a podcast of the event is being produced) focused on the similarities and…
I have never met the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s Litter Prevention Manager, Nik Turner, but since she was appointed earlier this year she has launched a number of initiatives (see here for example) and appears to have woken the Park out of its slumber. That is welcome. Many of the problems she is…
After my visit to the Keltie Water hydro scheme at the beginning of May (see here), I complained to the Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, James Stuart, about the Park’s continued failure to address the mess left by a development which they had nominated for a Scottish Planning Quality Award. …
The last thing I was expecting when I was writing on Tuesday about the democratic deficits in our planning system (see here) was for West Dunbartonshire Council to vote unanimously to oppose the Flamingo Land development, but that is what they did at their Council meeting last night. Tories, SNP, Labour and Community Party Councillors…
On Monday the Green MSP, Alison Johnstone, launched a public consultation on a Members Bill to introduce a ban on fox hunting and further restrict the killing of mountain and brown hares (see here). The Bill is partly in response to the failure of the Scottish Government to respond adequately to Lord Bonomy’s report into…
Democracy and the planning system – the National Park, West Dunbartonshire Council and Flamingo Land
I was honoured to be on the platform last night for the Save Loch Lomond meeting in Balloch about the proposed Flamingo Land Development…… along with five elected politicians. There were some great contributions which you can view on Independence Live (here). Flamingo Land, Scottish Enterprise and local SNP politicians, possibly in thrall to the SNP…
After the criticisms in my last post about the way the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is being managed (see here), its good to be able to report that the Park’s management have got something right. At today’s Planning Committeethey are recommending that the Planning Application from the Wards Estate for a function…
The public accountability of our Public Authorities has, over the last twenty years, been reduced to a thread. Part of the reason for this is that journalists are, with a few honourable exceptions, no longer employed to report on what our Public Authorities are up to. The days of the media regularly reporting on Board…
On 15th May, after climbing in Glen Coe, I stopped off to show my climbing partner the camping permit area at Inveruglas – one of several the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park has created which are not fit for purpose. Most of the permit area – like many others in the National Park –…
Scottish Enterprise’s decision to make a joint planning application with Flamingo Land at Balloch, with a view to selling off the publicly owned gateway to the National Park for private profit, is looking increasingly foolhardy. First Scottish Enterprise included the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, the body that has to decide the planning…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s Trees and Woodland Strategy (3) – where are the trees?
The public consultation on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s Trees and Woodland Strategy closes today (to respond go here). Following my posts about how the absence of any plans in ths strategy means that the management of “productive” conifer forests is unlikely to change (see here) and the missed opportunities for native woodland…
Background The Planning Bill, which is about to be considered again by the Scottish Parliament, originated as a response to developers who claimed that the Planning System was an impediment to “economic development”. The real explanation for why developments can take a long time to materialise lies in most developments being driven first and foremost…