Dear LLTNPA, I spotted these tents at Bein Glas campsite on Sunday 26th June at 9.30 am. They looked abandoned to me and sure enough they were still there late afternoon. When you published all those photos of abandoned tents by the lochshores you implied that banning camping outwith controlled areas would stop these problems…
Tag: LLTNPA
One of the objections I submitted to the LLTNPA’s development plan Response – Development Plan and Camping was it used totally different terminology to describe campsites than what has been used in the Your Park consultation – a case of one part of the Park not talking to another. (See https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/06/07/park-authority-applies-planning-permission-unwanted-campsite-loch-chon/) I emailed the Park’s…
I was out last Sunday taking a look at the Glen Falloch hydro schemes which I had not yet visited. In an earlier post I was very critical of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park for setting out no firm rules about what locations might be suitable for hydro schemes https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/05/24/glen-falloch-hydro-schemes-2/ . The…
On Friday I received a response (EIR 2016-018 Response) to the questions I had raised about the proposed north Loch Venachar campsite. This was approved in the Five Lochs Management Plan of 2012 but the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park had failed to deliver it as planned in 2013-14. (For background see https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/05/27/disappearing-campsites-loch-lomond-trossachs-national-park-development-plan/.) I…
I was in the Lake District last weekend, camping in Borrowdale, where there are at least 8 campsites in the 12 kilometres south of Keswick with not a holiday chalet or caravan in site. The contrast with the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park, where the National Park Authority has granted provision for much of…
It feels a little strange to be writing about the CNPA Board Meeting today http://cairngorms.co.uk/meeting/board-2016-06-24 – a small issue in the scheme of things – when Britain has voted to leave the EU but Scotland has voted the other way. I believe the political and economic uncertainty this has already caused creates opportunities as well…
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Meeting last Monday included a paper on “Your Park” after a request from a Board Member at the previous meeting for regular updates this year. That there is now some public reporting on how the Park is developing its camping proposals is a step forward. The…
I have now been observing Board Meetings for 18 months and the one on Monday was twice as long as usual (the shortest has been over in 45 minutes), all because there was some debate in public. A welcome development even if the meeting again demonstrated much of what is wrong about how the Loch…
The inclusion of a paper Agenda Item 9 – Reducing litter in the National Park for discussion at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Board Meeing on Monday (13th June) is welcome. The paper makes a number of welcome statements, which are very relevant to the issues which have been raised on Parkswatchscotland by…
Raptor Persecution Scotland published a piece today about the BBC Countryfile programme at the weekend on the Invermark Estate and the recent history of persecution in the Angus glens. The list of crimes, most never “solved” or brought to justice is horrific. In the interests of accuracy though its worth stating the vast majority of…
On 27th May the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Park Authority advertised a planning application to create a new 30 place campsite at Loch Chon. You can find all the papers through the Park planning portal http://eplanning.lochlomond-trossachs.org/OnlinePlanning/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=dates&keyVal=O79O0SSIJ6T00. It is bizarre that the LLTNPA is applying to itself for planning permission when the land is owned…
Cameron McNeish has some interesting comments to make on National Parks and the political priorities for the new Scottish Government in the latest Walkhighland newsletter http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/political-priorities/0014950/ In it he states he believes the reason the SNP did not commit to more National Parks was lack of cash – or to put it another way because…
The Cairngorms National Park Authority has, with Scottish Natural Heritage, issued a short educational video on dog walking in the National Park https://t.co/ZsYpjNosWL This is to be welcomed. The Land Reform Review Group, which reported to the last Scottish Parliament, concluded that access rights were working well but there were a number of areas where further…
Following my last post on camping provision in the LLTNP https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/04/27/con-loch-chon-loch-lomond-trossachs-national-parks-disappearing-camping-plans/ I asked Gordon Watson, the Park’s Chief Executive once again about the outstanding campsites which had been agreed for the Trossachs back in 2012 and to clarify how the Park’s draft Development Plan would encourage new campsites email to Gordon Watson 28th April 2016 …
My thanks to Stella Bray who asked Patrick Harvie, Leader of the Greens, his view of the camping byelaws in an online question and answer session before the election https://www.facebook.com/ScottishGreens/videos/10154164579926170/ His response appears 39 mins and 39 seconds into the video and is worth listening to. He clearly states that there is no justification for…
The Scotsman three weeks ago http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/loch-lomond-and-trossachs-named-top-of-uk-beauty-spots-1-4121929 carried an article on how the National Geographic Traveller magazine had voted Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Britain’s top National Park because of its stunning landscapes and called it a “Scottish Haven”. One wonders if anyone voting has passed through Glen Falloch in the past year and witnessed the…
I had never driven along the Forest Drive, a forest track open to public motor vehicles, that goes from the Dukes Pass north of Aberfoyle to Loch Achray in the Trossachs until Monday. The Drive, and the land 200m on either side of it which is owned by Forestry Commission Scotland, is included in what…
On the way to pick up Nick Kempe from Balloch Station to look at proposed Trossachs Camping Management Zones I passed Duck Bay picnic area at about 09.30 on Monday 17/05/2016, after a very pleasant and presumably busy weekend. I do not know who is responsible for maintaining the picnic area, but it does represent…
I was out looking at the proposed Trossachs Camping Management Zone with Nick Halls on Monday. Nick is a compulsive litter picker and spotted an abandoned tent on the west shore of Loch Achray so we pulled into the Ben Venue carpark, operated by Forestry Commission Scotland and picked it up. There are no litter…
In April the Standards Commission decided that Owen McKee, the former convener of Planning for the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park who had been trading in the shares of the Cononish goldmine, had breached the Code of Conduct for Standards in Public Life. They would have suspended him if he had not resigned https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2016/04/20/owen-mckee-hearing-standards-commission-2/ …
David Lintern, the wild land photographer who writes for Walk Highland, contacted me last week about the Ben Glas hydro scheme, above the Beinglas farm campsite at the head of Loch Lomond. He has written a heartfelt and poetic piece on his blog http://www.davidlintern.com/blog/ about this, along with photos which show the destruction that is taking…
The failure of Aileen McLeod to be re-elected to the Scottish Parliament means there will be a new Minister for the Environment in the new Scottish Government. This post – which is responsible for our National Parks – has existed, under one title or another, since the creation of the Scottish Parliament. Dr McLeod was…
When Aileen McLeod, the Minister for the Environment, approved the camping byelaws she made a couple of conditions, that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park produce annual reports and undertake a three year review. The Park had previously undertaken a review of the east Loch Lomond byelaws, which was deeply flawed, but which they…
I have come across a few pieces in the media over the last two weeks which I believe show just how out of touch the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority are in their attempt to stamp out camping and fires. Beltane, fires and the Park Beltane, one of four Gaelic seasonal festivals, was…
In the Government Press release announcing the camping byelaws Dr McLeod made a powerful claim to justify her decision: “The evidence that I have seen of damage caused, particularly in some of the most environmentally fragile spots in the National Park, tells a compelling tale of the need for action. Abandoned campsites, discarded litter,…