 By Nick Kempe on Apr 21, 2025
Had this appeared three days earlier I might have thought this was an April fool except the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) doesn’t do humour. There were lots of comments like the one above (see here) on this announcement but such feedback, which shows what the public really think, is never publicly reported by the Park Chief Executive, Gordon Watson, to his board. It would be interesting to know how many LLTNPA board members ever look at the public comments on its Facebook page – they should be shocked.
 Photo of new toilet block next to the visitor facility at Inveruglas which also has toilets inside it. January 2020. In July 2019 the LLTNPA, which is chaired by Heather Reid, pictured left, announced (see here) that with the help of £500k from the Rural Tourism Infrastructure Fund it was improving visitor facilities, including toilets, on the West Shore of Loch Lomond at: Luss, Tarbet (where the motorhome toilet disposal point has since been moved!); and Inveruglas where improvements were also being made to the car park. The news release stated:
“Modernising facilities at these key sites will help to provide a world class experience that matches the expectations of people coming to Scotland’s first National Park”;
while Mr Watson was quoted as saying:
“While people primarily visit for the scenery and recreation opportunities on offer, things like high quality toilets, parking, campervan facilities and bins can make a huge difference to a visitor’s overall experience”.
The news release also announced that Inveruglas would effectively be closed for most of Septmeber and October to enable the work to be done. Given the LLTNPA’s record of delivering infrastructure projects I was pleasantly surprised to find the new 24 hour toilets in place and working in January 2020 just before the Covid pandemic.
Such is my distrust of the LLTNPA I have learned to document all I see – photo May 2021So how it that just five years later the LLTNPAis having to close BOTH sets of toilets at Inveruglas for “the visitor season” – in parkspeak that means until 30th September – to accommodate essential infrastructure upgrades”? It seems that the toilets were not as “high quality” as Mr Watson claimed. Is this another example of an infrastructure upgrade that has gone badly wrong(see here) or was it that the LLTNPA failed to maintain the toilets just as they failed to maintain the scenic viewing tower (An Ceann Mor) at Inveruglas (see here) ? That too is currently closed for repairs.
Each time I have been to Inveruglas in the last couple of years the new toilets have been locked which suggests they may have only worked for a short period. Not value for money – one wonders if the funders, VisitScotland, have ever been informed?
Whatever the explanation for the closure, these apparently essential infrastructure works were NOT reported to the LLTNPA Board meeting at the start of March. The Annual Operational Plan for 2025/6, contains a list of infrastructure upgrades and refers to work at Tarbet and Falls of Falloch on west Loch Lomond but makes no mention of Inveruglas:
The Joint Response Visitor Management Plan for 2025, designed to “reduce visitor-related pressures on the environment, people who live and work in the National Park and visitors” doesn’t mention the closure either but basically repeats what is in the AOP:
It is not just the toilets at Inveruglas that have been closed but the camping permit area and overnight use of the car park by campervans and motorhomes too (whether or not they have their own internal toilet):
Coupled with the nearby Tarbet Isle camping permit area, which appears to have been closed because Forest and Land Scotland has failed to clear the area of windblown trees (see here), this represents a significant reduction in camping provision on west Loch Lomond.Despite this, LLTNPA staff have not even attempted to provide any alternatives. Even if the entire plumbing at Inveruglas has gone down the pan all that would be needed to cater for day visitors and campers would be a couple of mobile toilets and a stand pipe.
Back in 2019 and the first closure for work on the toilets the LLTNPA recognised that: “closures during the latter half of the summer season are not ideal, but in order to maximise the external funding available for this project, all work requires to be carried out within this timeframe”. Now, the works are to take a whole season and no temporary facilities have been arranged to fill the gap.
The LLTNPA’s claims five years ago that their work at Inveruglas would provide a “world class experience” now lies in tatters. The sad truth is the LLTNPA is not only totally incompetent but their senior staff don’t care one iota for ordinary visitors – wherever they come from. This won’t change until there is an independent review into the failure of Scotland’s two existing National Parks.
Top of page picture: Members of the board of the Loch Lomond National Park Authority, including West Dunbartonshire Council representative Hazel Sorrell. |
