MORE than 55,000 objections have been put in against controversial proposals to build a resort on the banks of Loch Lomond, the Scottish Greens have said.
It comes after revised plans for the major tourism destination on the southern shores of the famous loch were lodged after concerns were expressed about the previous proposal.
In 2019, the company behind the proposed Lomond Banks development in Balloch – theme park company Flamingo Land – withdrew its initial proposal after more than 60,000 people signed a petition calling for it to be scrapped.
Green MSP Ross Greer said that the plans could be beaten back “for good” this time around.
Officials at the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority have recommended that the plans – which are also opposed by the National Trust for Scotland, the Woodland Trust and Ramblers Scotland – be abandoned.
Greer said: “I am grateful to everyone who has supported our community campaign. Every objection matters and helps to show the scale of local and national opposition to this garish, unwelcome and destructive development.
“It would be an environmental disaster, and an act of cultural vandalism against one of Scotland’s most beautiful and iconic landscapes. It would mean extra traffic and congestion on local roads which are already struggling to cope, and would only stand to benefit wealthy tourists, not the community or existing local businesses.
“Loch Lomond means so much to so many people. It must not be treated as a playground for developers looking for a quick profit. We’ve beaten Flamingo Land before, and, with tens of thousands of objections, this time we’ll do it for good.”
The revised planning proposal was submitted in 2022 and would see the construction of two hotels, up to 127 self-catering cottages, a waterpark, and a monorail on the site.
In the summer of 2022, the Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, an independent charity set up in 1978 to oppose the construction of an energy plant near Ben Lomond, gave its backing to the Lomond Banks development.
The charity’s chair, James Fraser, said that the idea the £40 million building work would be on a “virgin area of Loch Lomond” was untrue, and told The National the finished development could see significant benefits for the Balloch area.
