The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority elections In a positive step for democracy, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority has announced the candidates (see here) who have been nominated to stand in the elections to the National Park Board which will be determined by postal vote on Thursday 5th July. I…
Tag: LLTNPA
The Tourist Season in Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park is now well under way as is the Camping Management Byelaw regime. There appear to have been fewer Camping Byelaw Exemption Applications this year than last but that has not stopped the tents! Interestingly some of applications appear to remain as “awaiting decision”, either…
The implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation and Parkswatch and the LLTNPA Anyone is who a member of an organisation or who subscribes to blogs is likely to have been bombarded recently with communications about the new General Data Protection Regulation which came into force last week. Parkswatchscotland is a blog, not an organisation, …
Last week, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority validated an application for planning permission in principle for the Riverside and Woodside sites at Balloch (see here). This is a massive application, the details of which I will come back to in further posts, which has been submitted in the names of both Flamingo…
Following my post last week on forestry and access (see here), Andy Gray sent Parkswatch a couple of photos he had taken on Saturday 12 May 2018 when he and his family had decided to enjoy an ascent of Cruach Tairbeirt, the small hill above Loch Lomond which is most frequently accessed between Tarbet and Arrochar. On…
The section of the Speyside Way between Kincraig and Speybank is a beautiful walk through oak and birch woodland, with a scattering of aspen, hazel and rowan. Though not far from the pinewoods of Glen Feshie, somehow the very occasional pine looks out of place. The strip of woodland along the river is regenerating…
Following my post before the first May holiday weekend If you come across an access problem this weekend report it! which featured a fence on Loch Gynack in the Cairngorms, the Cairngorms National Park Authority alerted me that they had a form to report such problems. The link is at the bottom of this page…
On Sunday 13th I noticed a crashed or abandoned car just south of Inverarnan close to the location of another abandoned blue car which had featured in two of the earliest posts on parkswatch in 2016 (see here). These explored how the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s approach to abandoned cars fitted…
The proposal At the end of March Vento Ludens submitted a planning application (see here) for an additional hydro intake on Ledard Farm which is owned by former Councillor and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Member Fergus Wood. I must admit to initial disbelief, having investigated the shenanigans that took place over…
I was struck by the contrast been this story in the Herald last week and the story the week before about the children from the east end of Glasgow who had never seen the sea (see here). While Kelvinside Academy has set up its own outdoor centre in what used to be the Allargue Arms…
The primary reason for the creation of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park was to provide a mechanism that would manage visitors better in the interests of both people and the natural environment. The National Park was envisaged as a body that would ensure that proper infrastructure was put in place to enable people…
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…
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…