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…
Tag: restoration
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Notifications that two of the Glen Etive hydro applications had been withdrawn were issued by Highland Council last week but, before anyone celebrates, they have been replaced with new applications for the Allt Mheuran and the Allt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…
Scotland has a long history of failed economic projects – with railways providing some prime examples. Within the land now designated as a National Park I am particularly fond of the proposals developed during the 1845 railway bubble. The Caledonian Northern Direct Company, chaired by the Duke of Montrose, proposed construction of a line…
On Friday the Cairngorms National Park Authority Planning Committee is due to consider the application by Natural Retreats, financed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, for a dry ski slope at Cairngorm (see here). It hard to conceive of a more inappropriate development but officers have recommended that Board Members accept the proposal. The issues are…
I have followed some of the Parkswatch blogs about the awful hydro tracks around Glen Falloch (see here) and seen them for myself from the hills. In July 2017 we were staying in Lochcarron and I was horrified to see a hydro scheme at Coulags at the start of the walk up Maol Chean-dearg. This…
West of the Keltie Water hydro scheme, which has been shortleeted for a Scottish Planning quality award (see here), on the other side of the ridge and high ground running south from Beinn Each, are two further run of river hydro schemes. Both are situated in forestry/woodland on the Drumardoch and Ardchullarie Estate above…
Eighteen months ago I blogged about the Keltie Water hydro scheme north of Callander based on photos supplied by Derek Sime from the Munro Society (see here) concluding that it was one of the better hydro schemes I had seen in the National Park. I found out last week that it has now been shortlisted…
Last week Community Land Scotland, who have the ear of the Scottish Government, was reported in the Herald as claiming “Rural communities are being “airbrushed” out of Scotland’s rugged landscapes by policymakers who care more about maintaining an artificial wilderness” (see here). One of CLS’s central arguments is that protection of wild land is preventing…
In August of 2017 HIE initiated a clean-up operation on CairnGorm Mountain. A number of environmental groups had campaigned for this action for years and with over 12 months having elapsed since the commencement of the clean-up, it is time now to examine the results and the value for money obtained for the input of…
Hydroelectric power generation features prominently in the firmament of the renewable energy icons of the ‘green movement’ and indeed among its most avid supporters, there is almost a zealous fervency about it, bordering on religiosity about its promulgation, indeed one tantamount to a holy dictum of hydro. There is no doubt, in a political environment…
The consultation on the second five year Cairngorms Nature Action Plan was launched on 20th June and closes on Friday 14th September at 5pm. The draft plan is easy to read (just 36 pages with big print and lots of photos) and there in an online survey form which focuses on whether the aims, objectives…
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…
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 –…
Twenty five years ago a group of dynamic people interested in land-use in Scotland undertook a study tour of Norway and the subsequent report written by Andy Wightman, now a Green MSP (see here), inspired many people to get involved in developing alternatives to blanket blocks of Sitka, degraded grouse moors and deer “forests”. Last…
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…
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…
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…
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…