A national park is steeling itself for a “lot of interest” about Flamingo Land’s plans to build a holiday park on the banks of Loch Lomond.
The Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority is urging people to have their say on the proposals – but stressed they should direct those comments to the applicants.
Theme park developer Flamingo Land withdrew its original plans for a £30million holiday park with accommodation in the national park in the face of vast opposition and a recommendation from planning officers to reject the proposal.
But yesterday, the applicants took the first step in pushing ahead with “revised” proposals for the site, by requesting an environmental impact assessment ‘screening and scoping opinion’.
This is a typical requirement for major developments, and represents a preliminary step towards a future planning application.
‘Provide feedback directly to applicants’
A spokeswoman for Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park Authority said: “While this is not a planning application at this stage, we appreciate that there will be there will be a lot of interest in this proposal.
“We would urge people with questions or comments about the proposals at this stage to direct these to the applicants.”
The spokeswoman said the next step in the process would be the pre-application consultation, which “gives people an opportunity to share their views with the prospective applicants before a formal planning application is submitted”.
She added: “This initial consultation is led by the applicant, not by the National Park Authority so we would encourage anyone with an interest in this proposed development to take part in the consultation by providing feedback directly to them.”
Greens signal opposition
The Scottish Greens have vowed to fight the new plans, with West of Scotland MSP Ross Greer saying: “The 60,000 people who fought to stop this cynical development last time haven’t gone away.
“We sent Flamingo Land packing once before and I’m confident that we’ll do the same again.”
https://t.co/cyZuwJdJId pic.twitter.com/uBFGomdNBj
— Ross Greer (@Ross_Greer) June 2, 2021
However, the developers of the new project – named Lomond Banks, like the original – insisted that “important, very significant” changes had been made after listening to concerns.
Jim Paterson, development director for the project, said: “Our revised plans will be are based on feedback given around the original proposal.
“We have listened to issues raised and will look to make some important, very significant, amendments to the plans to ensure Lomond Banks will be in keeping with its environment.
“We will also be undertaking further community consultation to ensure that the views of the local community are at the heart of our revised plans.”