Listening to Radio Scotland on Wednesday, I heard a reporter extolling the wonders of Loch Lomond as the venue for the European open water swimming championships which takes place over four days starting on Wednesday 8th August (see here). Spectating at the event is free of charge and unticketed. The Reporter seemed blissfully aware of…
Tag: planning
After my recent posts on the lack of agricultural (see here) and (see here) hydro tracks in the Pyrenees National Park and surrounding protected areas and how we could learn from this in Scotland, I thought it worth reminding readers what best practice in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park currently looks like. The…
[Editor’s note: my apologies to James and readers, I had intended to appear publish James’ objection to the Flamingo Land proposal at the end of June. It makes a forceful case for nature] My objection to the Flamingo Land planning application was as follows. To the east, the Site Boundary is on the River…
Descending from the Brazato pass, after a long and wild walk up the Valle del Ara (see here), Banos de Panticosa came as a surprise. While in a brilliant location, nestled under a chain of 3000m peaks, it provides an example of how not to do developments, whether in National Parks (its right on the…
While the central Pyrenees has many beautiful natural mountain lakes, there has been significant hydro development for over 100 years and many lakes have been created or extended by dams. We came across hydro schemes on many days of our two week walk, even in remote places. In an interesting article (see here –…
The French Pyrenean National Park and the Ordesa and Mont Perdido National Park are much smaller than our two National Parks in Scotland but surrounded by large buffer zones where the National Park influences what activities take place and how land is managed. In the National Parks themselves there is no permanent human habitation and…
The replacement extension to the Cairngorms National Park Authority HQ, which is now close to completion, has been attracting some critical comments in the Strathy. The building, which the Cairngorms National Park Authority leases, is owned by Reidhaven, more commonly known as Seafield Estates, which owns much…
Three months ago, following the felling of over 100 trees by Drumkinnon Bay in Balloch I asked the question what was going on (see here)? In mid-June the police arrested a man from Alexandria in connection with the felling (see here) but there have been no further announcements about whether he was acting on someone’s order…
Restoration on North Drumochter Estate section of the Beauly Denny Anyone who has driven along the A9 recently and taken a passing look out the window will be aware of the extensive scars across the hillside north of Drumochter summit, scars created by the Beauly Denny construction tracks which SSE were supposed to have fully…
Savill’s, acting on behalf of the Pitmain Estate, submitted in early June a retrospective Planning Application to Highland Council for the new unlawful track in Glen Banchor which I had featured last November and which I had reported to the Cairngorms National Park Authority. They had been forced to do this because the CNPA had,…
The gulf between the rhetoric of the Scottish Establishment on the need for community involvement in planning and reality has created a massive crisis for the Flamingo Land Planning Application at Balloch. This post takes a look at people’s response to the Flamingo Land application, considers the key issues and the implications of what…
Close up, the track to the three Allt a’ Chuillinn hydro intakes, which form part of the Derrydarroch hydro scheme in Glen Falloch, does not look too bad. Its been significantly narrowed since construction, the sides covered with vegetation and a central strip of vegetation placed down the middle. Its quite a pleasant walking…
A planning system stacked in favour of developers The Cairngorms National Park Authority called in the planning application (see here) for a large extension to the Ptarmigan Restaurant at Cairngorm financed out of public funds on the 14th May. Under their current standing orders they will only report on Objections to Planning Applications which are…
There have been numerous recent reports of failures to enforce long term planning obligations within the Cairngorms National Park – these are conditions of planning permissions which remain in place after the permitted work or development has been completed. They often cover the re-instatement of temporary works after the work has been completed or the…
On Sunday, hoping to have missed the worst of the thunderstorms, I set with my daughter for a two day round of the ring of Tarff as training for her first mountain marathon. I had not thought of checking the state of the Bruar hydro restoration (see here) and (here) and had planned to approach…
After the record temperatures in the Highlands it may seem strange to write about what’s happening to downhill skiing at Cairngorm and the impact on the local economy but its all related to the current planning applications at Cairngorm. The first, the application to install a dry ski slope above the Coire Cas carpark (see…
Last week, the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority validated an application for planning permission in principle for the Riverside and Woodside sites at Balloch (see here). This is a massive application, the details of which I will come back to in further posts, which has been submitted in the names of both Flamingo…
Mining and quarrying have formed two of the greatest challenges faced by National Parks in England Wales. This is because the upland areas there are rich in minerals and provide rock good for housebuilding and because most of the National Parks are situated in close to large urban conurbations. Our two National Parks in…
On Sunday 13th I noticed a crashed or abandoned car just south of Inverarnan close to the location of another abandoned blue car which had featured in two of the earliest posts on parkswatch in 2016 (see here). These explored how the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority’s approach to abandoned cars fitted…
The proposal At the end of March Vento Ludens submitted a planning application (see here) for an additional hydro intake on Ledard Farm which is owned by former Councillor and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority Board Member Fergus Wood. I must admit to initial disbelief, having investigated the shenanigans that took place over…
Looks like many other SUDS schemes ….but why would they not want photographs taken? Read on……………… This SUDS scheme looks like many others, but could it really become a national icon and the ‘go to’ place for water technology as claimed by the British organiser of an Icelandic delegation visiting to the Cairngorms National Park? …
After construction On Monday, I dropped by the Corriemulzie hydro scheme a few kilometres west of Braemar to see what progress had been made on restoring the landscape destruction caused by poor oversight of the contractors who had built the scheme in 2016 (see here). I was pleasantly surprised. Now The terrible scar in the…
Our National Parks Authorities are two small cogs in the much wider structures which govern life in Scotland and subject to similar pressures and influences as other such organisations, whether austerity or the ever increasing trend towards centralisation of government in Scotland. Many of the comments made by speakers at the “Act as if we…
(This post first appeared as a letter in the Helensburgh Advertiser on Thursday 5th April) As the Loch Lomond and Trosssachs National Park Authority have now belatedly applied Tree Preservation Orders (TPOs) to the decimated area in Drumkinnon Bay is it not time that the Park were more proactive in protecting other areas within the Park…
Just over three weeks ago, after deciding to retreat from a climb in Glencoe due to the wind, I decided to take a look at the Allt Choire Chaorach hydro scheme opposite the Auchessan schemes in Glen Dochart (see here). Within a couple of hundred metres I witnessed two extremes of how the Loch Lomond and…