AS a resident of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, I have every sympathy for Ruth McLusky (Letters, November 2) and other local residents who have had to put up with encampments of people staying for lengthy periods and the consequences that can have on the community and immediate environment. There are however existing laws to address this problem, for example the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, and the question for local people is why the national park has not worked effectively with landowners and the police to make this work.
I agree with Ms McLusky that displacement is an issue. At Ardentinny in the Cowal peninsula, also within the national park, a loch shore car park and picnic site is now described as a campsite in local press reports. While the police to their credit appear to be taking action against anti-social behaviour, that campers are in the place long enough to be caught does not necessarily mean that they are the culprits of some of the crimes attributed to them. The picnic area proximal to the beach and picnic tables are regularly trashed during holiday periods, which suggests the litter, fire scars and damage are as likely to be due to picnics, smoking, dog walkers and people just parking and dropping their litter as camping. Unfortunately this is a feature of the concentrated use of popular localities for leisure purposes. The national park should refocus its attention on mitigating impacts of all visitors instead of proposing to criminalize all camping.
To do this it, together with Forestry Commission Scotland, the National Trust for Scotland and councils, must also demonstrate exemplary good practice in every aspects of conserving the quality of the national park. I recently visited Rowardennan – where camping has been banned for four years and car parking charges are levied. The lack of care for the surrounding environment and visitors’ convenience was striking. I picked up a bag of litter from around my car and the toilets were closed at 5pm Unfortunately when a place looks uncared for there is less chance visitors will treat it with respect and facilities should be available when they are needed.
Excellent provision for camping, where demand is greatest, is a prerequisite for a quality visitor experience. Harassing responsible visitors with threats of legal action unless they “buzz off” and camp somewhere else will undermine public support for our national parks.
Nicholas Halls,
Otter's Pool, Ardentinny, near Dunoon.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel