THE PEOPLE HAVE THEIR WAY: Loch Lomond Flamingo Land resort rejected by park authority

By Bill Heaney

BBC Scotland is reporting that “a controversial proposal to build a holiday resort on the banks of Loch Lomond has been rejected by the national park authority”.

We are using some of Kevin Keane’s report here because it was apparent from the outset that that the public would be treated like dross and spoken down to at every turn.

Evidence of this was apparent even before the meeting when a clearly marked police car was stationed outside the church and two police officers were on the door while a team of “heavies” in high viz jackets manned the gates to the car park.

What in heaven’s name did the Park Authority think was going to happen?

One man who requested entry to the meeting after he saw two women leaving asked if he could get in was told No. “I was amazed by this,” he said.

I put my hand up to ask a question but the convener of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs Park Board, Heather the Weather Reid, left, a former BBC Scotland weather girl,  said haughtily that she wasn’t taking questions from the public.

According to the TV pictures of the site visit, she acted in a similar manner towards a placerd carrying protester at the earlier site meeting.

The lesson in this is that you should never expect justice or democracy when there’s a “celebrity”  with a taste of power in the chair.

And anyway the Park’s management and spin doctors had leaked much of what was about to be said at the meeting to the Glasgow Herald, who published it hours before the meeting started.

This was supposed to be a public meeting, but bodies like the National Park Board and West Dunbartonshire Council appear to believe they can set their own rules whenever it suits them and ban the press and public from speaking.

There’s a hefty touch of Putin’s Russia about doing your business in such a manner.

The fact that the meeting went on until after 6pm is confirmation of the ancient dictum that work expands to meet the time allocated to it.

There were so many suits and officials around too that we should expect organisations such as Park Authority  hiring people to turn the pages for them when they are reading from a document.

Democratic Dunbartonshire is an oxymoron.

Theme park operator Flamingo Land wanted to build the £40 million Lomond Banks resort – including a monorail, waterpark, hotel and restaurants, writes Kevin Keane, the BBC Scotland environment correspondent.

But the proposal sparked opposition due to factors such as flood risk, increased traffic and impact on local businesses – with more than 174,000 signing a petition against it.

Following a visit to the proposed site, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) board voted against the development going ahead.

More than 100 people were at the meeting at Lomond Parish Church in Balloch to hear the decision.

Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer, left, who was a long-standing critic of the plan, said the development would pose a risk to the local economy and that most of the jobs created would not be full time workers.

He said the decision was a “huge victory” for the party’s long-running campaign to save Loch Lomond.

Greer added: “Residents have been united against this daft plan from the start, stepping up to defend one of Scotland’s iconic landscapes.

“After almost a decade, this is the result the community and campaigners deserve.”

Local community council representatives told the meeting they were “fatigued” by the long-running debate over the project, which was first proposed in 2018.

Stuart Pearce, ‘director of place’ for the LLTNPA, said it created “unacceptable risk” of flooding of the River Leven.

The major part of his contribution in an amateurish slide show, which a large number of people in the hall could not see, was read out by a woman sitting beside him who spoke sotto voce and frequently swallowed her words.

And Lynne Somerville, of Balloch and Haldane Community Council, said it would “go against the very will of the people who live in the area”.

The campaign demo outside the church where the planning meeting was held.

However, the project developers said they were surprised that the scale of local investment had been described as “minor”.

Flamingo Land representative Fiona Robertson insisted it would have created a “significant” amount of economic growth and jobs, but had not proof of that to offer the public at the meeting.

Others in support of the plans included Rev Ian Miller, the interim moderator at Lomond Parish Church of Scotland, who said that “if there is any increase in employment, I’ve got to vote for it for their sake.”

Loch Lomond’s park authority previously recommended rejecting the plans.

A 188-page report into the development stated that removing trees and woodland without replanting would fail to deliver the “significant biodiversity enhancements” needed for the National Parks’ response to climate concerns.

Environmental watchdog Sepa was also among those to object to the proposals earlier in the year, citing flood risks.

Earlier this year, West Dunbartonshire Council said it neither opposed or supported the development, which had angered opponents of the plan. Typically theirs was a “maybes aye, maybes naw” response.

Flamingo Land first submitted plans for the site in 2018, but withdrew them the following year after a wave of negative reaction.

It submitted updated plans in 2020, insisting the proposal would be a “major step away” from its other resorts, including a theme park and zoo in Yorkshire.

Top of page: The large audience which turned up in Balloch to see Flamingo Land consigned to history.