Stephen Campbell, a keen angler, who has commented several times on parkswatch posts and like most anglers is strongly committed to conserving the natural environment sent me this photo taken at the weekend along with the comment “No Difference” and that the rubbish “had obviously been lying for a while”. The Loch Drunkie dam on…
Tag: LLTNPA
Last Sunday I took a walk around the Pitmain Estate on the higher ground between Newtonmore and Kingussie. There is a deer fence which runs between the ugly, and recently upgraded track, and Loch Gynack which prevents people from reaching the loch shore. This area could, and should, provide a high quality recreational experience…
On the surface the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is quite transparent about the complaints it receives, reporting on these to the Government through its Annual Report. Below the surface, however, there is evidence to show that the LLTNPA is covering up what is really going on. In this post I will take…
James Stuart, Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, has publicly stated that he is committed to ensuring the National Park operates with greater transparency. One of the things I have been lobbying him on in the last year was for the LLTNPA to start publishing ALL responses to information requests…
Just like our National Parks, the Vanoise National Park has a duty to preserve the cultural heritage. A while back they surveyed all the traditional buildings in the area and found over 200 building design features that had evolved over centuries and which helped people survive and indeed flourish in a hostile mountain environment. Those…
Almost everywhere you go in the Haute Maurienne is evidence of community use of the forests which cover much of the valley sides. Locals use wood to heat their houses and in construction. The contrast with Scotland is striking: how many such wood stores do you see in the Argyll Forest Park or in Crianlarich?…
Just over a week ago Cameron McNeish sent me this photo of a sign he had come across while walking on the RSPB Nature Reserve at Loch Insh near Tromie Bridge in the Cairngorms National Park. The sign was clearly against the Scottish Outdoor Access Code – and in breach of our access legislation…
At the end of my first week in the Vanoise the weather improved slightly and we skied past the Fond d’Aussois hut which is only staffed in the summer but has a winter room. Outside the front entrance, which was reached through a corridor of snow, was an immaculate composting toilet. In the…
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…
I have been in the Haute Maurienne, in the Vanoise National Park, the last week on a two week ski touring trip. There has been a lot of snow, far more than recent winters (see here), and what is left is still impressive. Unfortunately, from the ski touring point of view, our arrival coincided…
(This post first appeared as a letter in the Helensburgh Advertiser on Thursday 5th April) As the Loch Lomond and Trosssachs National Park Authority have now belatedly applied Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) to the decimated area in Drumkinnon Bay is it not time that the Park were more proactive in protecting other areas within the Park…
Just over three weeks ago, after deciding to retreat from a climb in Glencoe due to the wind, I decided to take a look at the Allt Choire Chaorach hydro scheme opposite the Auchessan schemes in Glen Dochart (see here). Within a couple of hundred metres I witnessed two extremes of how the Loch Lomond and…
The response of many outdoor recreationists to the Drumlean decision (see here) was to highlight the hyprocrisy of the LLTNPA who while defending access rights with the one hand were undermining them with the other. These contradictions in the LLTNPA’s position were nicely exposed in an article in TGO magazine (see here). I believe people…
For the first time, in over two years of campaigning, I can report that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has done the job it was set up to do and, by pursuing the access problems at the Drumlean estate all the way to the Court of Session, they have done everyone in…
In a major embarrassment for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority the Lennox Herald reported over 118 trees were chopped down last week on land which the Park manages and provided an excellent photo of the damage (see here). While its unclear at present who was responsible for this, the extent of the…
The Allt Essan and Auchessan hydro schemes lie on the north side of Glen Dochart south of the Munros Meall Glas and Sgiath Chuil. Both were approved by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority in December 2014 but the Auchessan design was subseqently amended in 2015 (see here and here). While both schemes were…
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…
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…
After my visit to Firkin Point last Sunday (see here), I submitted a formal complaint about the toilets still being locked two days after the snow had gone when on the LLTNPA website it had said: “Opening toilets at Firkin Point from 1st March to be in line with the start of the camping season”. …
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s report for Ministers on the first year of the campiing byelaws (see here) was a spin job based on assertions and half-truths rather than facts. This week I have obtained through Freedom of Information some of the facts I suggested almost six months ago should be included…
Last week on Tuesday the LLTNPA Board unanimously agreed to give the go ahead to the Cononish goldmine. That they did so tells you everything which is is wrong about our National Parks in Scotland. That they did so unanimously tells you that there is still something seriously wrong with the LLTNPA Board. That…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park’s new camping byelaw “season” started last Thursday, unnoticed in the midst of the chaos created by the “beast from the east”. It was announced in a wonderful piece of parkspeak, “National Park prepares to welcome campers as byelaws come back into effect” (see here). A strange welcome you…
“Wild land areas must get the same absolute protection as national scenic areas and national parks. Time is running out for Scotland’s most precious natural asset: its landscape, as more and more wild land is eroded by development” That was the response of David Gibson, Chief Executive of Mountaineering Scotland, after the Court of Session…
On Sunday, returning early after a short ski tour over the Cairnwell in a white out, we stopped at the Devil’s elbow, where I had the pleasure of reading an estate sign which used the National Access Forum’s recommended template and form of words as set out in their Guidance on Deer Stalking and Public…
Both our National Parks have two statutory objectives which incorporate the term ‘sustainable’: “to promote the sustainable use of natural resources”, and “to promote sustainable economic and social development of the area’s communities”. As I revealed last week (see here), while the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has adopted a policy on mining…