PATIENCE WEARING THIN OVER PUBLIC ACCESS RIGHTS AND COMPLAINTS TO LOCH LOMOND PARK AUTHORITY

Nick Kempe’s Parkswatch column: On 20th September I wrote about the sign above in a post on Scotland’s free trade in land and its consequences – Coille Coire Chuilc and Auchreoch.

I reported the sign that same evening to the Access Team at the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority (LLTNPA) copying in Ramblers Scotland and the access officer at Mountaineering Scotland:

As usual when I send emails to the LLTNPA I received an automated reply almost immediately, not from the access team but another email account:

The explanation for this is that any email I try to send to any member of staff or board member (the few with public email accounts) at the LLTNPA are automatically intercepted and redirected to “infomailbox@lomond-trossachs.org”.  That email account does NOT appear on the LLTNPA “contact us” webpage (see here) which advises people to contact info@lomond-trossachs.org for general enquiries and, you have guessed it, accessteam@lomond-trossachs.org for access related issues.

It then took almost took an anonymous person at Information Management, rather than the Access Team,  to acknowledge my reporting of the access signs:

What this tells you is that all staff at the LLTNPA have now been banned by their unaccountable Chief Executive, Gordon Watson, from communicating with me.  Even more disgracefully, any email I send to the Convener of the LLTNPA, Dr Heather Reid, is also intercepted and read by the Chief Executive or his staff first.

I have now sent over 20 emails to Convener@lomond-trossachs.org and Dr Reid has not replied to a single one.  Judging from the fact that Sandy Bremner, Convener of the Cairngorms National Park Authority does reply to my emails, it appears Gordon Watson has banned his Convener from speaking to me too. This is further evidence to support my argument that democracy in the LLTNPA has been destroyed (see here).

Yesterday afternoon  I received another email from Information Management saying the Access Team had known about the Auchreoch sign for some time, agreed it was not “legally complaint” and had been negotation with the landowner wording for a new sign:

Effectively this claims that the unlawful Auchreoch sign has been dealt with.  If I had been allowed to communicate directly with the Access Team they could have told me this the next day, instead of the three and a half weeks, I would have had follow up questions dealt with there and then and I might have been be one happy campaigning customer.  Instead, I am writing a blog post explaining what happens to people who try to raise any concerns about what is going on in what is supposed to be a National Park, such as Mr Watson’s role in the proposed Flamingo Land Development (see here) and (here).

I will take the opportunity here to also highlight the cost of this Orwellian bureaucracy which, according to the narrative of the “free world”, is supposed only to exist in places like Russia.  It goes something like this: first pass the  email reporting an unlawful access sign to Mr Watson himself or a senior manager to consider; they then pass to the intended recipients to advise on a response; the advised response is then checked by Mr Watson or a senior manager; finally the response is passed to “Information Management” to send.

Note too the ridiculous assertion under the anonymous sign-off “The content of this email and any attachments is confidential”.  No its not!  It’s a matter of public interest – just like the unanswered questions about Mr Watson’s involvement in the Flamingo Land application.

While sometimes I have allowed myself to become frustrated with how the LLTNPA operates, its best to try and carry on as calmly as possible and focus on the issues at stake.  Here is my reply to Information Management’s response to the Auchreoch sign:

If the Access Team really was alerted to the unlawful Auchreoch access sign by colleagues earlier this year, as claimed, that would be a very welcome development.  For years the LLTNPA Ranger Service has passed other unlawful access signs, including the no camping signs in places like Balquhidder, on a daily basis and the LLTNPA has done nothing about them.  If you see a sign that appears non-compliant with access rights, say it (all over social media) and report it.

Whatever the issues with trying to agree the wording for a new sign and the time this took, the Access Team should have insisted the existing non-compliant sign was removed immediately.  It will be interesting to see the new wording and to report whether there is anything that might discourage people from exercising their access rights to go off-path and  to camp.  And if the Auchreoch Estate really do have a Pines and Wildlife Research Team (as per photo above) I hope the LLTNPA have insisted they provide a contact phone number on the sign………let’s just hope any calls don’t get re-directed.