MORE than 53,000 objections are to be 'handed in' over the controversial £30m Flamingo Land holiday resort on the shores of Balloch which prompted a Save Loch Lomond campaign.
The campaign, fronted by Scottish Greeen MSP Ross Greer, is said to have notched up a Scots record in terms of objections for a planning bid.
Developers last month submitted a new masterplan for the project, renamed Lomond Banks and formerly submitted to Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park which features a water park, 60-bedroom apart-hotel, a craft brewery, boat house, leisure centre and restaurants.
The developers, Iconic Leisure Developments hope to complete the project in 2024 and say they expect as many as 80 full time jobs, 50 part-time jobs and to 70 seasonal posts to the area.
Now Mr Greer is planning to 'hand in' the objections in a ceremony on the banks of Loch Lomond on Monday.
He will be joined by the Greens' lead candidate for the EU elections Maggie Chapman along with local activists behind the Save Loch Lomond campaign to mark the deadline for objections to the planning application.
In the 24 days since the masterplan was unleashed, a further 13,000 have added their names to a online petititon portal objecting to the project by Iconic Leisure, the firm behind the Flamingo Land theme park of rollercoasters, water rides and flumes in North Yorkshire.
John Sweeney, of Sweeney’s Cruise Company in Balloch is one of those who has backed the proposals saying the area needs the investment.
He saidIt will lift the whole of Balloch. As villages go it has not got a lot going for it.
It was claimed in October, last year that a record number of people objected to plans by the Trump Organization to build a large new housing estate near the US president’s golf course north of Aberdeen.
More than 3,000 people had submitted formal objections to the plans, with another 19,000 people signing an online petition protesting against the scheme to build 550 private homes and golfers’ chalets on farmland beside the course.
The Loch Lomond development also features activity areas including a tree top walk, events and performance areas, children’s play areas a monorail, forest adventure rides and picnic and play areas.
It also features 32-bedroom budget accommodation, 131 self-catering units, six private houses and 15 apartments.
Iconic say Lomond Banks will be a "world class family holiday village" ensuring more people can experience everything the area has to offer "in line with the vision that has been held by development agencies and the local authority since the early 1990s".
They were selected as the "preferred developer" after a national marketing campaign for a 44-acre site by Scottish Enterprise. That gave the company exclusivity over the area to undertake site investigations such as geotechnical, ecology, flood risk, utilities and access studies.
The Scottish-owned company has said it hopes to build on the existing success of Loch Lomond Shores which has seen visitor levels steadily increase to 1.25 million visitors annually.
Iconic have previously declined to comment on the petition but said that the project would enhance the natural landscape and improve wildlife habitat.
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