Tag: planning

September 19, 2021 Alan Brattey 7 comments

The Cairngorm National Park Planning Committee saw fit to grant Cairngorm Mountain [Scotland] Ltd (CMSL), Highland and Island Enterprise’s wholly owned subsidiary, permission to set up a Campervan Park in Coire na Ciste on Cairn Gorm. That consent was granted on 21 May 2021. CMSL indicated to the planning committee that they might be able…

September 6, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

On 19th August a firm called Caledonian Building Surveyors Ltd submitted a Screening Request (see here) to Highland Council on behalf of the Pitmain and Glenbanchor Estate Ltd. It asked if an Environmental Impact Assessment was required before they could upgrade and create new tracks and upgrade part of the public road up Glen Banchor…

July 19, 2021 Nick Kempe 3 comments

Following my post on the failed restoration of the Beauly Denny powerline access tracks (see here), someone asked on twitter “how would you have done this differently”?   The answer lies just over the hill on the southern face of Carn Dearg Mor above Glen Feshie.  There, Wild Land Ltd is in the process of removing…

July 13, 2021 Nick Kempe 7 comments

On Sunday evening I went up to take a look at Cairn Gorm, the first time since the repair of the funicular started.  I got a photo of the construction (see here) of the tube slides before the rain started. The steel support structure for the slides, referred to in the planning application, appear to…

May 23, 2021 Nick Kempe 8 comments

It’s now three years since the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) approved the new planning application (see here) for the financial gamble that is the Cononish goldmine.  After it was reported in December that the mine was fully funded until 2022 and the first gold from the mine had been poured (see…

April 26, 2021 Cairngorm lover 9 comments

In the Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd [CMSL] Business Plan that was published on 24 January 2020, the interim CEO wrote the following: Vision: ‘’To become a world class Visitor Destination – Ambitious to succeed’’   On 23 March 2021, CMSL submitted a planning application (see here) to Highland Council for a Campervan Park within the Coire na…

March 15, 2021 Nick Kempe 9 comments

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…

February 26, 2021 Nick Kempe 5 comments

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…

February 12, 2021 Nick Kempe 4 comments

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…

February 9, 2021 Nick Kempe 6 comments

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…

December 29, 2020 Nick Kempe 5 comments

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…