The arrangements for taking the planning decision On 29th July the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority issued a brief news statement setting a date for their Board visit to the West Riverside site (Monday 24th September) and for the Board Hearing and meeting which will decide the Flamingo Land Planning Application (Tuesday 25th…
Tag: Local communities
I have been thinking and discussing with various contacts the claim by James Stuart, convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, that it conducts a risk based approach to planning enforcement (see here). The evidence from the Donich Water hydro scheme, situated above Lochgoilhead, which I visited earlier this year, suggests the…
[Parkswatch is delighted to host this guest blog by Dr Tom Scanlon who has been researching litter in the Clyde Estuary www.mts-cfd.com] Let’s talk rubbish. An estimated 62,000 items of plastic marine litter make their way on to the coastline around Arrochar each year [1]. Among the questions I asked myself included; how do…
It has now been 9 months since the Funicular Railway was taken out of service but whether or not it will be repaired remains unknown. The focus though of Highlands and Islands Enterprise is entirely on whether or not it can be repaired. The HIE website has this: ‘’HIE has consistently stated that its preferred…
Following my two posts on the proposed Mountain Coaster (see here) and (here) , I will take a look at the financial and environmental aspects of the proposed new uplift at Cairngorm as outlined in the SE Group report of November 2018 (see here). I will use the same kind of format as the Mountain Coaster…
This is a picture of the Fiacaill ridge in Coire Cas which is being proposed as the new site for the Mountain Coaster, an idea which is, I am reliably informed, already attracting a lot of interest, and not in a positive way. The second photo is a close up of the same area showing…
“A mountain coaster is a massive source of income but has to be implemented by the community”. This was part of a Facebook post on Sunday 23/06/2019, the claim being that the business plan proposed by the Aviemore and Glenmore Community Trust (A&GCT) and the SE Group showed a good profit could be made from…
On Monday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority re-advertised (see here) the Flamingo Land Planning Application and announced a new statutory 28 period for the public to respond. The reason for this is that Ian Cowan, the consultant commissioned by Ross Greer and the Greens whose work has been financed by a crowdfunding…
Highlands and Islands Enterprise, as owners and custodians of the Cairn Gorm Estate, have full responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of the public assets that lie within the estate. In an article published in the Press and Journal on Thursday 16 May 2019 headed “Cairngorm funicular report held up over potential legal action” (see…
Yesterday, Flamingo Land’s media consultants issued a New release on their revised Planning Application at Balloch. This received widespread media coverage and appeared designed to deceive. Most of the media did not fall for the attempt to rename the proposed development Lomond Banks and continued to refer to it as Flamingo Land. No-one, however, questioned…
After announcing a “major application” update last week (see here), the revisions to the Flamingo Land planning application appeared yesterday evening. There are about 40 new documents on the planning portal (see here), all dated 5th April rather than the 17th April when they were made public by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National…
Following my post on 28/2/2019 about the ADAC Structure and COWI reports on the funicular (see here), this post shows how Highlands and Islands Enterprise are deliberately trying to cover up and hide information about what has gone wrong with the Funicular on Cairngorm. I sent an FOI request on 03/10/2018 for two other reports…
At the end of November, I took a critical look at the Balloch Charrette, the community planning event that took place in 2016 (see here) AFTER the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority had already committed to Flamingo Land going ahead. Out of the event came an Action Plan (see here) complete with lead partners…
Scotland’s Forest Strategy 2019-29 launched 10 days ago contains not a single reference to National Parks. There is just one reference to Caledonian Forest and that is within a paragraph which describes the range of woodland in Scotland. Nothing is said about the place of the Caledonian Forest in expanding forest cover across Scotland despite…
The Report in the Strathy last week was based on the proposals for winding up the former Cairngorm Mountain Ltd (CML) which the Administrator has lodged at Companies House (see here). This post takes a further look at what it reveals about the mismanagement of Cairngorm Mountain over the last five years. Background note…
Last week I was contacted out the blue by the press to comment on the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s new £40k a year Litter Manager. The Herald gave this extensive coverage (see here) – and even referred to my views in their Leader calling on the Park to take tougher action. …
Highland and Islands Enterprise’s announcement last week (see here) that the funicular would remain out of action for the summer and possibly longer, failed to explain what has caused the problems or the likely cost of the repairs that might be needed to make it safe to use again. Meantime it has announced that the…
The new draft Cairngorms National Park Local Development Plan 2020 was launched for consultation on 25 January (see here) and we all have until 5 April 2019 to plough through the 228 pages and the myriad of supporting documents and make our comments. This document is the outcome of the Main Issues Report which was…
The case for the restoration of the Maid of the Loch The case for the restoration of the Maid of the Loch is extremely strong. The boat itself is part of our industrial and cultural heritage http:// https://www.maidoftheloch.org/history. As importantly, its mooring by the pier is located next door to the steam slipway and…
Charrette is the fashionable name given to events ostensibly designed to include and empower local communities in respect of local planning processes. The name appears designed to discourage and disempower, unless you happen to be French. Still, if well run, incomprehension can change to active participation while ideas and proposals can be produced and converted…
Four more hydro schemes are being proposed in one of the most special parts of Scotland which, if it were anywhere else in the world, be a National Park. Unlike the proposed schemes in Glen Etive (see here), which I hope to post more on soon, these schemes have so far received little attention…
Scottish Enterprise’s financial support for Flamingo Land Following the revelation from Jackie Baillie, the local Labour MSP, that Scottish Enterprise had valued the enormous West Riverside Site in Balloch at a paltry £200k, the Greens have discovered that Scottish Enterprise have been giving further help to Flamingo Land by paying for “site investigations”. “To date,…
The purchase of the Kinrara Estate by Wild Land Ltd, which is owned by Danish billionaire Anders Povlsen, received wide media coverage including from papers who like to treat such matters as part of our celebrity culture (see here). It raises some dilemmas for people who believe that fundamental land reform is needed to address…
While Highlands and Islands Enterprise are receiving a public drubbing at Cairn Gorm, Scottish Enterprise has so far been very successful at keeping out of the public eye with Flamingo Land. Their attempt to subvert the planning system at the West Riverside site in Balloch (see here) is part of a much larger problem in…
The Flamingo Land Planning Application should be central to the debates currently taken place in the Scottish Parliament on a new planning bill. The central question they need to address is how is it that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority could be judged overall winner in the Scottish Quality Awards for…