Loch Lomond, Flamingo Land & greed

Loch Lomond is the jewel in Scotland’s crown. It is world famous for its natural beauty. But now, at the gateway to the loch, that beauty could be trashed by a theme-park operator looking to line their own pockets.

Together with the community in Balloch I have fought Flamingo Land and their daft mega-resort proposals for almost a decade. Over 155,000 people across Scotland joined us, lodging their own objection to the destructive plans.

And destruction is absolutely the right word.

Flamingo Land, currently a Yorkshire theme-park operator, wants to build two hotels, a waterpark, a hundred woodland lodges, 370 parking spaces, a monorail and more by the shore of Loch Lomond at Balloch.

To do that, they would cause huge damage to the local environment, cutting down woodland and building on a floodplain. They would also bring misery to residents. Their own traffic assessment predicted over 250 extra cars an hour at peak times. 

Anyone who has been on the A82 knows it already grinds to a halt the moment the sun is out. All that extra traffic will make life even harder for locals who are regularly trapped in tourist traffic jams.

It's for all these reasons and more that the board of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park unanimously rejected Flamingo Land’s application at a public hearing back in September. 

They were advised to make that decision by the National Trust for Scotland, Woodland Trust, Ramblers Scotland, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and their own expert planning officers.

But right before Christmas, Flamingo Land lodged an appeal with the Scottish Government.

And outrageously, Government officials have now granted that appeal, overturning a democratic decision and dismissing the objections of over 155,000 people.

Why has the Scottish Government put the profits of this theme-park operator ahead of Scotland’s national interest?

This is not just a local planning dispute, it is a massive application at the very gateway to our world famous National Park. And this approval is a national scandal.

The last ten years has been a David and Goliath struggle between a rich and aggressive developer and a local community determined to protect Loch Lomond. We beat Flamingo Land at every step of the way though, because their application was so absurd and the arguments against it so clear.

That was until Friday, when the Scottish Government’s planning officials told us they were approving the appeal.

The fight isn’t over yet though. The National Park can and must fight this decision, including in the courts if necessary.

But before it gets to that, Ministers could use their power to recall the decision.

You can use this form to demand that Planning Minister Ivan McKee intervenes to veto this decision and end this sorry saga.

Flamingo Land has dragged this out over many years in a clear effort to exhaust our community campaign. We will leave no stone unturned to stop this ridiculous plan from going ahead, but The National Park has far more resources than our Save Loch Lomond campaign. They must put them to use and defend the clear decision they made to protect the jewel in Scotland’s crown from a greedy developer and its destructive proposals.

A version of this post was first published in the Daily Record on 17th May.