Lochaber national park plan would be 'transformational'

The following three years required considerable effort to secure both public and private funding and support for the resort and strict conditions were imposed to ensure there was minimal impact on the landscape that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.

Despite the controversy that surrounded the development for many years, the considerable effort and hard work was finally proven worthwhile when on December 19 1989 Nevis Range opened to the public.

Nevis Range opened in 1989 and is now popular with mountain bikers (Image: PA)

Around 200,000 people now turn off the A82 to enjoy the resort's wide range of adrenalin-fuelled activities and experiences, including its mountain gondola and bike hire. A new hotel was added last year that quickly attracted a 98% occupancy rate.

The man who pushed hard for Nevis Range to happen is now in his eighties but Ian 'Spike' Sykes hopes others will take on the fight for something he believes could be even more transformational for the area.

Lochaber is one of five areas in Scotland in the running to be Scotland's new national park.

Locations in the Scottish Borders, Galloway, Loch Awe and the Tay Forest are also being assessed for suitability with a final decision expected in the Summer.

The Commando Memorial near Spean Bridge in Lochaber (Image: Newsquest)

The UK has 15 National Parks and only two of these are in Scotland but not everyone would like to see the tally increased north of the border.

The campaign group Lochaber National Park NO More say the money would be better spent on infrastructure, citing the 20-years delayed Belford hospital replacement.

There have been accusations that the consultation process was flawed and insubstantial and concerns about added bureaucracy for landowners and much has been made of the costs of the project - the Scottish Government’s combined 2023-24 budget allocation for Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park Authority and Cairngorms National Park Authority was £20.9 million.

While the national parks plan was brought forward under the now collapsed Bute House Agreement with the Greens, Mr Sykes, who co-founded outdoor clothing store Nevisport, says he hopes the SNP will push ahead with it and that he will live to see it implemented in his adopted home.

He said that most people are not aware of the benefits that it could bring.

"There are some very vocal antagonists against it," said Mr Sykes. "I think it's mainly concerned with an extra layer of bureaucracy and what-not.

"We have to try to get the local community behind it and to see that there is a lot of good that can come out of it.

"There was an attempt to do it [in Lochaber] a long time ago and nobody showed any great interest in it and it fizzled out and I think that's part of the problem.

"It's difficult because Fort William is not quite like the rest of the Highlands. Most of the Highlands was [always] quite liberal but the Fort was this little industrial area and they never got on that well with the rest of Highland Council.

"[But] I rather suspect that Lochaber were a bit behind the game," added Mr Sykes, whose chain of Nevisport stores began with a "wee climbing shop" in Fort William and grew into a multi-million-pound empire.

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"I certainly think that some of the other areas were better organised but to my mind,  I just think that if we are not very careful, the Highlands is getting left behind," he said.

Action to Protect Rural Scotland points towards the investment that Scotland's other two national parks have attracted following the designation.

Supporters of national parks point to the investment the Cairngorms has attracted (Image: Getty)

Over the past twenty years Cairngorms National Park Authority alone has brought over £24M into the area (on top of core government funding) and was recently awarded a further £10.7M in grant funding towards the Cairngorms 2030 project focused on climate and sustainability.

The Park Authority said that more than 2,000 houses had been built since 2003, including hundreds of affordable houses built over the past few years with investment in much-needed ranger services and visitor infrastructure.

Nevisport founder Ian Sykes says locals should be fighting for - not against - the national park proposals (Image: Ian Sykes)

"I think for all the trouble that has been the Cairngorms and the difficulties they have had there, Spey Valley has developed," said Mr Sykes, who lives in Tor Castle, near Fort William.

"Aviemore was a basket case 15 years ago and it's a really nice place now. It's become a proper visitor resort.

"The farmers have done really well because they get their fences fixed and their roads are better.

"We need a new hospital and God knows what else and I think attracting a national park into the area draws attention to it and will help bring other things to it.

"I suspect that what we should do if the Borders gets it, is to stick to our guns and keep pushing for it," added Mr Sykes, who was made an MBE in 1990 for services to mountaineering.

Spey Valley golf course (Image: Getty)

He said Fort William was surrounded by "beautiful countryside" but the town itself required a lot of investment.

Earlier this week the owners of the Lecht Ski Centre in the Cairngorms warned it may have to shut down due to a lack of snow.

Its operators say a "dire" season means they are launching a crowdfunding appeal to raise £35,000 through lift pass sales so the centre can open for 2025.

"I thought when we got the ski thing going that it would transform the town" said Mr Skyes, "but unfortunately the weather has not been great over the last few years.

"Skiing has always been a struggle and I guess the biggest problem was the advent of cheap flights to the continent. It was cheaper to go and ski in France or Italy than it was to come from Birmingham to Fort William.

"When we opened Nevis Range there were loads of buses coming up every weekend from Newcastle and places like that but now I'm not sure when the last bus of skiers came up from the south.

"It's become local skiing and I just think the Fort is just dying for some form of development."

A keen mountaineer, as a young man he was in the Mountain Rescue Section of the RAF when stationed at Kinloss in 1959.

He founded Nevisport in 1970 with Ian D Sutherland while both were in Lochaber Mountain Rescue and were dissatisfied with the poor selection of climbing equipment found in existing UK stores.

Just four years later, the store had to relocate to larger premises and subsequently opened a second store in Glasgow to cope with its success, growing into one of the country’s leading outdoor speciality retailers.

"The Ben is a fabulous mountain and it's covered in rubbish," said Mr Sykes, who was appointed an MBE in 1990 for services to mountaineering and also set up Nevis Radio.

"If we had a national park with a lot of people working for the park and improving things and redoing the paths I think it would develop the area amazingly.

"I started my climbing days in the Lakes and it was broken down, it was rubbish and now it's got massive traction and it's unspoiled in many ways.

"There are large numbers in the towns and villages but the Lakes are in great condition and I hate to see our beautiful area getting overtrodden and not looked after.

"I'm probably not doing to see but I'd love to see it started," said Mr Skyes who sold the Nevisport chain in 2004.

He says national park status could also lead to much-needed investment in the A82, which runs from Glasgow to Inverness.

The A82 is regularly listed among Scotland's most dangerous roads (Image: Freelancer)

The road was widened in 2015 at Loch Lomond as part of a £9 million improvement programme but is still precariously narrow in parts and regularly congested in high season.

"We've got Loch Lomond, Glen Coe, Ben Nevis, Loch Ness you name it - all the things that would attract tourists on the worst blooming road you could imagine," he said.

"When we opened Nevis Range [in 1989] they reckoned they would do up the road within the next five years and here we are.

"I just think that if something isn't done about it - and I'm not sure what would be done - but the national park at least seems to be a good start to getting things changed."