After being awarded an extra £3m by the Scottish Government for 2021-22, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority decided at their meeting on 15th March to delay deciding how to spend £965,000 of this until their June meeting (see here). One Board Member did ask Pete Wightman, the Director of Corporate Services, about…
Tag: LLTNPA
Last week, in my first visit to the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park for months, I went for a walk over the hills to the west of Lochgoilhead. The scenery above 2000ft is fantastic, wild and unspoilt and there are places where you feel you are in a landscape worthy of a National Park…
After visiting the Upper River Falloch hydro scheme last August, I argued that the scheme was unsustainable on the basis of the evidence that I saw then (see here). Photos sent to me this week show that in the eight months since there have been significant landscape changes and engineering works. These raise further questions…
The relaxation of travel restrictions on outdoor recreation and the Lomond & Trossachs National Park
Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement last week that the restrictions on travel within Scotland for outdoor recreation would be relaxed on 16th April, ten days earlier than scheduled, took most people by surprise. The legal restrictions on travel which were first introduced on 27th November remain in place, meaning that you still can only travel outside your…
After its Board Meeting, which approved a large increase of expenditure on visitor management (see here), the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority held a pre-season Stakeholder Briefing Session on 26th March to tell people about their plans “to manage visitor pressures when lockdown restrictions begin to ease”. Too late for genuine consultation, it…
In August 2019 the Glen Ample Estate submitted a Prior Notification to widen a section of the core path through the glen for forestry purposes. The core path forms part of the popular walking route from Loch Lubnaig to Beinn Each and the Munro, Stuc a Chroin. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority…
The Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authorities (NPAs) were both awarded significant increases in funding in the Scottish Government’s budget (see here), a significant turn-around in fortunes. In September the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) reported a significant hole in their finances, with a projected deficit – after yet…
A story in the Daily Record last week, about how a bride and groom who found their wedding venue at Balloch abandoned (see here), provides further evidence of the disastrous consequences of the National Park Authority’s commercialisation policy and its murky relationship with David Moulsdale, the founder of Optical Express. The wedding venue was located…
The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which introduced access rights, also gave Scotland Local Authorities and National Parks new powers and duties as “Access Authorities”. Section 25 required Access Authorities to set up one or more Local Access Forums (LAFs) to advise on the exercise of access rights in their area and to help resolve…
There is a case for using car park charges as an income stream to invest in visitor infrastructure and also to encourage people to visit by public transport, but that is not what is happening in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park. Instead, our public authorities have embarked on an unprincipled free-for-all extortion racket…
Ten days ago the Green MSP, Ross Greer, issued a news release (see here) after being informed by Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, that Scottish Enterprise “will not be a co-applicant in the planning process” with Flamingo Land for their proposed new development at Balloch. The story was picked up a couple…
Whether you know Dave or have never come across him, the 10 minute video produced by the Fort William Mountain Film festival (see here), much of which is set in the Cairngorms National Park, should be an inspiration for anyone concerned about the natural environment and access to nature. It shows just what can be…
The Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park Authority – is there anybody there for outdoor recreation?
Most people I know who are working at home are getting more work done there than if they had the distractions of the office. This has also been claimed in the press to be the case. But in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) it appears that during the Covid crisis much…
The planning system in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is so bad that normally it can be difficult to laugh. But regular readers might just enjoy this tale of an application to install a glorified tap at the back of the toilet block at Rowardennan…………….. The story, I believe, begins in 2018 when…
On Friday the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division rejected a request from the local community at Gartocharn that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) should have required the Hunter Foundation to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before approving their planning application at Ross Priory. The reasons for the decision…
Following my second post (see here) on the Inverardran forest road near Crianlarch, Mary Jack sent me a list of all the prior notifications for forest roads considered by Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) last year and their decision in each case. This post considers what that list (see here) tells us…
After my post about the Cairngorm Hotel’s failure to pay the minimum wage to all their staff (see here), the court case this week about the fire at Cameron House provides further evidence that we need to take a far more critical approach to the tourist industry. Elements of it are far from benign and,…
On Xmas Day I took advantage of the relaxation of advice on travelling to head up to Breadalbane for a walk over Maol Ghaordie with my partner. The bog was nicely frozen on the way up, it felt properly wintry on the top and we traversed the hill to descend by the scenic and rarely…
Snow enhances the beauty of our hills but it can also highlight the destructive impact that human developments have on the natural landscape. The hydro path, picked out by the snow, has disfigured Gleann Casaig and destroyed the sense of wildness in the Ben More and Ben Ledi wild land area. Once, from viewpoints on…
Just before Xmas Scottish Enterprise (SE) announced (see here) it intended to renew its Exclusivity Agreement (EA) with Flamingo Land which was due to expire at the end of December. If approved by Scottish Ministers, the EA will legally commit SE to selling the land it owns at Balloch to Flamingo Land, should they secure…
The landslips that have blocked the A83 through the Rest and Be Thankful more or less continuously since August are a wonderful example of what happens when decision-making is not informed by an understanding of the natural environment and fails to consider the consequences. From the original decision to route the A83 across the unstable…
As usual, the latest edition of Earth Heritage (see here) has some excellent articles about Scotland but I was particularly interested to read “Reflections from a Geoheritage Sabbatical in Scotland: The View from America”: “Scotland was a natural choice for a geoheritage sabbatical for several reasons: spectacular and diverse geology; the importance of Scottish scientists…
Amid the public outcry about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s approval of the Hunter Foundation development at Ross Priory, the Scottish Government’s Planning and Environmental Appeals Division has opened a case (see here) on whether an Environmental Impact Assessment should have conducted. Until that is decided, the LLTNPA’s decision has effectively been…
On Monday I watched, or tried to watch, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board meeting online (see here for papers) . The “lifesize” video link kept cutting out soI had to log back in ten or so times. It appeared from disappearing Board Member and vice-convener Willie Nisbet that I was not…
Last Monday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Planning Committee approved the Hunter Foundation (THF)’s proposals (see here) and (here) for a “Global Leadership” (and wedding) Centre on the shore of Loch Lomond unanimously. While the meeting was webcast live, unlike other public authorities our National Parks do not make recordings of their…