This week Loch Lomond and The Trossach National Park’s highly fraught consultation closed, in which it sought to ban wild camping on several more areas of the bonny banks of Loch Lomond.
As you may have read, the park wants to extend bylaws to the western shores and to introduce similar regulations at the northern end of Loch Long, as well as six other sites.
Now don’t get me wrong, the damaging behaviour by hoodlums and litterlouts in the park should be dealt with firmly it causes distress to 15,000 plus folk who live there.
However these proposals have worrying consequences directly threatening The Land Reform Scotland Act, which is one of most radical and progressive pieces of legislation.
Cameron McNeish, who knows a thing or two about these things, said the bylaws when introduced originally in 2011 were only supposed to be temporary that’s why he supported them but sees the new proposals as a ‘dark stain’ on the integrity of the national park.
Dennis Canavan, Vice President of Ramblers Scotland and former MP for Falkirk, which used to cover large areas of the national park, told me when these proposals were first mooted, he pointed out this could be thin edge of the wedge, with bylaws extending to other parts of the park.
And here we are.
If these proposals go ahead the whole principle of land reform will be in jeopardy. A public authority undermining one of our finest pieces of national legislation is democracy turning on its head.
Ramblers Scotland and Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCoSf) are so worried they have asked Scottish Government ministers to intervene.
The parks consultation proposals run contrary to one of the things I am most proud of in Scotland, the right to roam. Scotland has some of the best access rights in the world and should be cherished not undermined.
I’ve got a sneaky suspicion Tom Weir, whose memorial stands on the banks of Loch Lomond, would be turning in his grave at the thought of these proposals.
In a dramatic intervention, former Chief Inspector of Police in the Loch Lomond, Kevin Findlater, who retired in 2013, slammed the park’s proposals and said they would ‘criminalise people innocently accessing the countryside’.
If the very man who oversaw the implementation of the bylaws is condemning their roll out then there is a problem.
Mr Findlater believes the park authority is using a handful of problem sites “to blow up and grossly exaggerate the problems being caused by caravans and motorhomes”.
Indeed, MCofS have made repeated requests since November to obtain data from the Park Authority, which they claimed as evidence to support the introduction of the new bylaws, but not received a thing.
The former Chief Inspector also said that “despite assurances given to the contrary, the new proposals grossly and unfairly extend the scope and geography of the bylaws in a way that must raise questions as to what are the real motivations”.
This comes to the nub of the matter.
Landowners and the RSPB are said to be highly supportive of the bylaws, and many worry that if the park authority gets their way, the precedent would open the door to landowners calling for them to be applied to their land. And that would be that, the end of right to roam, as we know it.
The previous Chief Executive Fiona Logan had made it clear she wanted the park to be treated like a private enterprise and a commercial venture. It seems Mr Gordon is carrying the mantle.
He even took to the blogosphere 12 hours before the consultation closed to defend the proposals as well as attack some of the key stakeholder who oppose them, throwing in to question the whole purpose of the consultation.
The fact is banning campers from these areas is just shifting the problem from one area to another.
We are always going to have challenges having a national park within an hour’s drive of over 50% of Scotland’s population.
The real issue is criminalising people for something which they are encouraged to do in most parts of Scotland.
Perhaps the park wouldn’t be in the position if it had an Access Forum, like we have in the Cairngorms National Park to discuss these matters properly key stakeholders and deal with disputes and proposals in advance.
The plan for its introduction died by the wayside then the bylaws were first introduced. This should be revived, and quickly.
The park should be using the existing laws of Scotland, to deal with these problems, not creating more layers of bureaucracy with bylaws to victimise innocent users of the park.
I love camping, and like the majority of the responsible outdoor enthusiasts don’t want to be criminalised, nor do the climbers who sleep in their car so they can get an early start, the cycle tourers, camper van drivers needing a rest or walkers stuck in bad weather or delayed.
The park authority’s main purpose is promoting the publics use and enjoyment of all it has to offer, not stifling it and directly undermining something that should be protected dearly, our right to roam.
Carry on camping, I say.