Back in February 2018 Parkswatch called for the Cairngorms National Park Authority to start taking enforcement action against the unlawful hill roads in Glen Clova (see here). The CNPA responded to say that in most of the cases it was unable, whatever it thought of the roads, to do so. This was either because…
Tag: restoration
In my last post on Glen Falloch (see here) I considered the impact that the very heavy rainfall of 5th August had had on the hydro intake pools. I argued that the serious infilling and damage in some cases appears to be a fundamental design flaw which results from schemes being constructed in unsuitable places. …
Ever since the storm which swept away part of the West Highland Line on 5th August I had been wondering what impact this had had on the hydro schemes there. I had been expecting it would have caused significant erosion of the hydro tracks, but never anticipated its impact on the hydro intakes. The extent…
[A version of this post appeared as a letter in the Press and Journal on 14th September in response to a letter from Gordon Benton on 3rd September] A number of people and interests are advocating expansion of the facilities on Cairn Gorm to include a hill station to solve ongoing financial problems. It would…
In theory the Cairngorms Connect project appears to be a good thing. Four organisations are working together across 600 square kilometres of the western Cairngorms to deliver the rewilding of marsh, river, forest and mountain habitats. These organisations, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Scottish Natural Heritage, Forest and Land Scotland and Wildland…
In March there was quite a debate on Facebook – 130 comments – about work that had recently been completed on a 1km section of the West Highland Way by Keilator Farm in Glen Falloch just before it reaches Crianlarich (see here). To their credit Gordon Baillie Contracting Ltd have not tried to remove any…
This post takes a further look at the issues (see here) associated with the latest Planning Application (2019/0247/DET) by Highlands and Islands Enterprises/ Cairngorm Mountain Scotland Ltd at Cairn Gorm. The application is to create a beginners ski area over an area of 0.93 ha or 9,300 sq.m. in the lower right-hand half of the picture…
A couple of weeks ago Highlands and Islands Enterprise lodged yet another planning application for Cairn Gorm, this time for the creation of a beginners ski area above the day lodge (see here for planning documents). James Gibb from HIE made no mention of this at the meeting organised by the Aviemore and Community…
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…
With the Funicular currently out of action and its future unknown, the recently published SE Group addendum into uplift a Cairn Gorm (see here) is ostensibly recommending the creation of 8.7 hectares of new ski terrain in Coire Cas as part of their revised plans. This post explains why this figure is wrong and far…
The Snowfactory at the top of the Coire Cas Carpark is 8m tall and stands sentinel to HIE’s bureaucratic mismanagement at Cairn Gorm. A snowfactory trial was undertaken at CairnGorm during the winter of 2017/18. That was a direct response to the Aviemore Business Association exhorting the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for HIE, Fergus Ewing…
After my visit to the Keltie Water hydro scheme at the beginning of May (see here), I complained to the Convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority, James Stuart, about the Park’s continued failure to address the mess left by a development which they had nominated for a Scottish Planning Quality Award. …
When blogging about the unlawful forestry no access signs on the Drummond Estate north of Callander 10 days ago (see here), I did not have time to feature what lay behind them. Nor about how the Keltie Water hydro scheme (see here) looks six months on. The new “forestry” road into Glen Chroin When…
I almost never watch TV but last week, in the middle of the first week of the Extinction Rebellion protest, I did watch the BBC documentary “Climate Change – the Facts” narrated by David Attenborough. The footage of forest fires burning out of control and the evidence that not only have the numbers of fires…
Last week the full Highland Council decided to approve the remaining three Glen Etive hydro schemes (see here). It was clear during the debate that a number of Councillors voted for the proposals because they believed the impacts of construction could be mitigated and the landscape restored to close to its existing state. While that…
“Our landscape is a national asset and we believe that it should be treated with care and respect so that future generations have the opportunity to enjoy it. We encourage the Highland Council to help protect the wild nature of the glen and reverse the decision to approve these three hydro schemes.” (Mountaineering Scotland see…
Here’s a prediction. There will be no rest and no thanks to the Scottish Government for as long as they allow the current mismanagement of the Rest and Be Thankful to continue and they fail to invest money in a long-term solution. That prediction and this post is prompted by the sheep spotted grazing on…
The revised Planning Application for the Ben More Hydro scheme (see here) is to be considered by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Planning Committee tomorrow (see here). I had intended to speak to my objection but have been called elsewhere. While there are provisions for objectors to nominate substitutes, there are none to allow…
I had walked up Glen Prosen a couple of weeks ago to look at the new roads at the head of the Glen but was prompted by the 26 traps we saw to blog first on wildlife and trapping in the Cairngorms National Park (see here). This post will took at the two new roads…
Following my post (see here) on the revisions to the Glen Etive hydro schemes, on the shortest day I went to take a closer look to compare what is being proposed compared with what is on the ground. I walked over the land included in four of the seven schemes, including the two subject to new…
A classic way to get developments through the planning system under the radar is to advertise them just before Xmas. The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority did just that on Friday when it issued a letter (see here) to people who had objected to the Ben More hydro scheme stating that the planning…
Notifications that two of the Glen Etive hydro applications had been withdrawn were issued by Highland Council last week but, before anyone celebrates, they have been replaced with new applications for the Allt Mheuran and the Allt Fhaolain. That re-starts the whole planning process. If you objected first time round, that objection is no longer…
In the talk I am giving tonight in Kingussie, I will be looking at the recommendations set out in the Report of the Cairngorms Working Party, Common Sense and Sustainability. This was published in December 1992 and played a key role in the creation of the National Park 10 years later. While some of its…
“An Amenity Notice is used where the condition of land is having an adverse effect on the wider public amenity of the area. For the reporting period of the PPF [Planning Performance Framework] , the case in question related to…………Killin – and prior to that we have also used this notice to good effect at…
Parkswatch sometimes gets it wrong and has done so in claiming that with hydro schemes in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park that it is the tracks, not the buried pipelines, which are the main issue. That is not the case at the Burn of Mar hydro scheme, situated at the back of Conic…