Hogmanay was forecast to be a wet day and Strathspey was flooded so I thought I would take a look at the River Gynack overflow, which had been reconstructed after being almost washed away in 2017 (see here), to see if it was operational and, if so, how the revised design was working. My estimate…
Tag: planning
A parkswatch reader recently sent me this photo of an unattractive development on the bonnie banks The two new lodges were originally granted planning permission by Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) planning staff in April 2018 with work required to commence within three years (see here for planning papers). The planning deadline…
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…
The Total Not Spot (TNS) element of the UK Government’s £500M Shared Rural Network programme is building 260 new masts to provide 4G mobile coverage in remote and uninhabited parts of Scotland. Due to complete in 2027, one of its objectives is to replace the 999 coverage currently provided by 2G when this network is…
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…
What is sustainable development in Scotland’s National Parks? The case of the Bracklinn Falls bridge
This week the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) announced (see here) it had won international award for the replacement bridge over the Bracklinn Falls above Callander, a story which was widely covered in the media. The news release claimed that “a bridge has existed here since at least the early 18th century”…
On 26th January the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) announced its “Tarbet Visitor site” would be completely closed for 8 weeks from the 29th January as part of a £2.1m upgrade and after that the car parking area would be limited until late summer (see here). Eight months later the works were…
On 21st October the Scottish Goverment upheld WHP Telecom’s appeal against Highland Council’s refusal of planning permission for the proposed O2 phone mast on Creag Dhubh (see here). The Reporter’s decision (see here) has potentially serious implications for the number of “competing” telecommunications mast in rural areas and for the landscape. Background Under the…
This is the view that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) planners didn’t want people to enjoy. In August 2021 LLTNPA planning officers recommended a planning application from the Sir Walter Scott Steamship Trust to erect a viewing tower accessed by 188m of path throught the oakwoods above Trossachs Pier be refused….
David’s Jarman’s post (see here) on the destructive impacts of the proposed Lochan na h-Earba pumped storage hydro (PSH) scheme and the fate awaiting Scotland’s landscape, natural environment and cultural heritage appears to have struck a cord. Many people who strongly support the need to reduce carbon emissions and recognise that we need to store…
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…
Between the 11th July and 12th August – the statutory minimum period the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) allows the public to comment on planning applications – c530 individual objections were published on the CNPA planning portal objecting to the proposed telecommunications mast at Ryvoan. Since 12th August the CNPA has published NO further objections,…
This is a fuller version of a story in Scottish Mountaineer this autumn, which takes its cue from the long-running “New Twists for Old Hills” series there. The literal ‘shafting’ is the driving of miles of tunnels through the Ardverikie Munros, linking hugely enlarged lochs for a Pumped Storage Hydro (PSH) scheme known simply and…
28th Septembermarks the first anniversary of the closure of the Cononish goldmine (see here). This was they way when Scotgold announced that the vast majority of its staff were being put on short-term unpaid leave, The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s mine monitoring reports, published with their usual secrecy six months in…
On Monday 16th September, as widely reported in the media – the BBC gave it coverage on UK news – those of the board of the Loch Lomond Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) present duly accepted the recommendations of their officers, without amendment, and rejected Flamingo Land’s planning application. This outcome was as I had…
Late yesterday the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)published an 187 page report (see here) with additional appendices for the board meeting on 16th September recommending board members reject Flamingo Land’s proposed development at “Lomond Banks”. While a welcome victory for campaigners, before anyone celebrates too much the reasons given at the end…
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…
The story of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority and the Flamingo Land development (2)
In the lead up the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) board meeting on 16th September which is due to decide the Flamingo Land Mark III Planning application (see here), I thought it would be worth trying to tell the whole story. Its a long one, so the first part was about the…
Keir Starmer has been widely reported over the last couple of days in the UK media as being likely to say in a speech today that “things will get worse before they get better” (see here). Whatever the truth of this statement as applied to the economy as a whole, it is certainly not the…
At the start of the week I published the first part of the story about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA)’s involvement in the proposed Flamingo Land development at Balloch (see here). In the process of checking the evidence for the second part of the story, I came across this important piece…
On Tuesday, 20th August, I and other objectors received this letter by email notifying us that the planning application for this 25m high telecommunications mast in the Glenmore Forest had been withdrawn. As usual, the description of the proposed development tells you little, but this is the “repeater” mast whose only purpose was to enable…
Following the Herald’s excellent coverage of Flamingo Land’s plans for Balloch at the weekend (see here) – which gave both sides of the “argument” and in which I was pleased to be quoted – it was very good to see the Balloch and Haldane Community Council (BHCC) challenge some of the misinformation being put about…
The story of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority and the Flamingo Land development (1)
I have written a number of posts over the last seven years about the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA’s) involvement in the proposed Flamingo Land development at Balloch, on the south shore of Loch Lomond, but never put the whole story together. It deserves to be widely known before the LLTNPA Board…
Background The matters arising paper for the June meeting of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) recorded that an ACTION recored in the minute the March meeting, that “SM to look at possibility of organising a site visit to the gold and silver mine at Cononish for Members”, was “closed”. The wording…
I have not visited Far Ralia, the land in the Cairngorms National Park Abrdn’s Property Income Trust (APIT) bought for £7.5m three years ago and has now put on the market for £12m, since January. I have, however, recently obtained a copy of an inspection Scottish Forestry (SF) conducted in June through a freedom of…