I WORKED for 15 years in Argyll & Bute, where the Loch Lomond bit of the Trossachs and Loch Lomond National Park is partly situated and I know and value the landscape and the wildlife.
I'm also a Glaswegian brought up to see Loch Lomond as Glasgow's back garden. My father and uncle cycled and climbed there in the 1930s; my nephew walks, cycles and climbs there now with his mates; I had my graduation lunch there 45 years ago; my nephew and his wife were married there 10 years ago; we take visitors there all the time; picnics on Inch Cailleach are a very happy memory.
Is there a move afoot to stop ordinary people enjoying Loch Lomond because they make a mess? I've read a comment by a conservationist about the new “rules” to keep people out in order to cut down litter in the park describing them as “draconian”. Now we have a petition online asking us to help boycott the proposed development by Flamingoland at Balloch (“Resort could be scrapped after petition”, The Herald, September 27, and Letters, September 28). It's important to understand that the development is not on national park land. It's on a brownfield site in the town of Balloch, which is in need of an employment boost. It's also not going to be a theme park: it's a hotel with glamping sites offering a total of 400 new jobs.
We should welcome Flamingoland and make it a condition of its planning permission that it set up cycle paths and walking trails with rest points and litter bins. That would get over a dual problem: get people out of their cars (I was often driven mad by tourists ambling along sightseeing from their cars while the people behind them were trying to get to work) and it would cut down on litter.
The Trossachs and Loch Lomond National Park is huge. There should be room for all of us. It can't be that national parks are only available to people if they are rich enough to have a boat on the loch or a holiday home in Ardlui.
Jean Nisbet,
35 Walton Court, Maryville Avenue, Glasgow.
UNTIL three years ago I regularly enjoyed what must be one of Scotland’s iconic walks, through a beautiful woodland area followed by a short sharp climb to the top of Ben A’an with magnificent views through 360 degrees. This climb, judging by the different nationalities I met on my journey to the top and back down, must be on every visitors’ guide book as a “must do”, hence becoming a major tourist attraction in Scotland. Because of an injury I had been unable to return to one of my favourite walks until Monday of last week.
What was a beautiful woodland walk was now a site of pure devastation. Gone were the indigenous trees, viewpoint seats and natural woodland trail. In their place was what looked like the aftermath from a bomb attack. Gone were the trees where I had watched the forest animals and birds, including the occasional osprey .The whole area has been left as a complete eyesore of broken branches and down-takings. The natural path has been replaced with a series of rocks, which has destroyed the appearance and the soft walking surface.
According to the Forestry Commission its policy is to consult with interested parties and to carry out their operations in sympathy with the environment and the public. In no way could this devastation in any way reflect such a policy.
To add insult to injury I found that on arrival at the car park the commission had introduced a parking meter which incurred a £3 charge for my day’s visit. The charge was according to the accompanying notice to maintain the paths and access roads to walks. What use of these funds are they going to make to restore what was one of Scotland’s beauty spots?
Derek Hall,
11 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
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