I was taken by surprise by the Scottish Government’s announcement on Tuesday that it had decided to reject Flamingo Land’s current planning application to build a holiday resort at Balloch five months after the Reporter, Mr Buylla, had submitted his second report on the proposed development (see here). I had thought the Scottish Government had…
Tag: Local communities
A video from July 2024 of the site can be seen here. Readers may be familiar with Stobo (see here and here) perhaps one of Scotland’s most environmentally destructive forestry schemes this century. In February 2024, Scottish Forestry awarded a £2 million taxpayer funded contract to the Forestry Carbon Sequestration Fund, a ‘registered collective investment…
Under “news” on the Balloch and Haldane Local Place Plan website (see here) it is reported that “over 40 people” came along to share their ideas at the consultation events held on 28th and 29th November. The population of Balloch and Haldane according to Scotland’s last (botched and not to be trusted) census is 5997. …
“The community-led Local Place Planning process for Balloch, Haldane, and Jamestown is now underway, and we want you to be part of it. This is a chance for local residents, families, and businesses to come together and help shape how our community develops in the years ahead. Your input will cover everything from the spaces…
Background After the Reporter appointed to hear Flamingo Land’s appeal, Mr Buylla, issued his Notice of Intention in May that their proposed development be approved (see here), the only option left to campaigners to stop the development at Balloch under planning law was to ask Scottish Ministers to call in the application and for the Scottish…
[Ed’s note. My apologies to Felicity Martin who wrote this briefing on the Glen Lednock windfarm application for Parkswatch 10 days ago but which I managed to miss while away. (I have added the illustrations from the planning application). Felicity wrote a piece on Oxygen Conservation and Glen Lednock in April which complements what she has written…
Following my post on Forest and Land Scotland’s Larch Removal Plan in Strathyre, which would decimate the forest and its wildlife (see here), the local community has set up a campaign to stop the destruction. In the words of a local person: “most of the villagers and local businesses had no idea this mass tree…
The proposal to plant Coire na Ciste on Cairn Gorm – a new low for conservation in the National Park
The caption reads “A solitary pine clings to the hillside in Coire na Ciste. A rare survivor in an otherwise treeless landscape”. Propaganda credit Spey Catchment IniitiatveA month ago, on 15th April, the Spey Catchment Initiative (SCI), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), formed in December 2022 issued a news release announcing it was to…
The propaganda The reality First the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) went after the campers, confining them to a few “permit areas” around the loch shores; then they went for the day visitors by shutting down visitor infrastructure and making it harder and harder to get to places; who and what will…
When first writing about the renewal of Scottish Enterprise (SE)’s Conditional Missives (Exclusivity Agreement) with Flamingo Land (see here) I had argued it was not clear if SE had voluntarily extended the agreement or was contractually obliged to do so. I had previously submitted a Freedom of Information request on 14th January asking SE to…
In January 2020 the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) announced (see here) it had secured £135k in funding from Visit Scotland’s Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund to modernise the toilet facilities and install smart bins at its Visitor Centre in Balmaha: “We know that the provision of things like high quality toilets and…
This Saturday Page/Park architects, who are acting on behalf of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) and West Dunbartonshire Council (WDC), are holding a public “engagement event” at the pierhead in Balloch. What is now described as an “Improvement Action Plan” was, back in June, called a masterplan – as I explained…
The planning application for the Loch Lomond rescue boat at Balloch – a positive decision badly made
On 10th October Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) planning officers approved a planning application to build a new station and slipway, access road and associated parking for the Loch Lomond Rescue Boat near the pierhead in Balloch. The Rescue Boat is a charity operated by volunteers and so far this year…
In my two posts on the Flamingo Land story (see here) I covered some of the history of the pier head area in Balloch: how the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) in 2015 had offered up the land it leased from Scottish Enterprise (SE) there to the preferred developer for the West…
When James Watt, sometime chief executive of the beer company BrewDog, speaks about tree planting in the Highlands, he reminds me of unpleasant landowners of the past. In his latest attempt at defending BrewDog’s disastrous planting efforts on their Kinrara estate near Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park, Watt did not mince his words when…
In a positive move, the local community in Balloch, the site of the proposed Flamingo Land development, have initiated a process to set up a local community development trust which would have the potential to take over some of the land in the village currently owned by Scottish Enterprise (SE) and the Loch Lomond and…
No corrie will be safe, no classic Munro round will remain sacrosanct, if they approve “Earba”. This is the developers’ secretive codename for a mega-pumped storage hydro scheme (PSH) which is with the equally secretive Energy Consents Unit to fast-track under some barely-accountable Energy Minister’s pen in amongst a sheaf of routine death warrants for…
GB TTIt is over three years since parkwatch published a letter from Alistair Bell in Canada about HIE’s corporate gaslighting at Cairn Gorm and why people had allowed downhill skiing there to die (see here). There have of course been several campaigns against HIE before, successful in the case of the opposition to extend downhill…
The funicular, HIE’s crumbling empire at Cairn Gorm and the need to reform Scotland’s National Parks
The current position ” Risks associated with reinstatement of the Cairngorm funicular railway were addressed through robust internal and external governance and project management” (HIE Annual Report 2022-23 as laid before the Scottish Government in October). There was no public news release but last week Highlands and Islands Enterprise let it be known through the…
[Ed’s note. This post complements the points David made in the excellent article by Vicky Allan in the Sunday Herald at the weekend: “£1m per mast. So who will benefit from costly new Highland phone lines?” (see here)]. The Shared Rural Network (SRN) was launched in 2020 to improve 4G mobile coverage in rural areas…
The Balloch and Haldane Community Council, who resigned en masse after backing the Flamingo Land development, is back up and running again with new people. That is a very good thing for the local community and Parkswatch is pleased to support their work by featuring this article by Lynne Somerville, their vice-chairperson, which is also…
This post takes another digression from National Parks to consider what this crushed house says about the failure of the planning system to respond appropriately to the risks posed by climate change. It took a couple of days but the national tabloids have picked up on the story, first featured in the P & J…
At the start of October, almost a year after they bought the Glen Prosen Estate for £17,555,000, , Forest and Land Scotland (FLS) launched an initial consultation of what to do with the land and buildings under the banner of developing an Angus Glens Land Management Plan (see here). When I last wrote about Glen…
Background The successful re-introduction of beavers to Scotland owes very little to our public authorities and everything to the people who, whether accidentally or not, allowed beavers to enter the catchment of te River Tay. While the official trial in Knapdale floundered – the river system was too small and the catchment isolated so the…
After the first three questions in NatureScot consultation on National Parks, which are about whether to turn them into vehicles for “green finance” (see here), the fourth is about the role of local communities (see here). The introductory text to the section claims that our National Parks “provide exemplars of community engagement” but contain no…