Flamingo Land’s £40m plans for a tourist resort on Loch Lomond could face a legal challenge, an MSP has warned.
But the developers behind Lomond Banks have hit back, accusing Ross Greer of ‘scaremongering’ and ‘presenting misinformation as fact’.
The revised plans – which include hotels, a monorail and up to 127 self-catering lodges – will be decided by Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority.
Last week Balloch and Haldane Community Council submitted a comment in support of the application, saying 3,000 survey forms had been sent to every household in our area, with 410 responses, 103 in favour, 305 against and two void.
In a statement on the national park website, the community council said: “We did not feel this was a true local representation of the community as only 10% of households had voted against.”
Green MSP Ross Greer says when the application was submitted in May, the important Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) referred to a number of ‘visualisations’ that had been required as part of the EIA, but these were not present in the documents submitted.
On August 3, the pictures were uploaded on the national park’s website, but without any indication that the visualisations were the missing part of the EIA.
Some of the visualisations are shown below – drag the arrows to show the current and potential future views.
Planning and environmental law expert Ian Cowan has submitted an objection on behalf of Mr Greer, saying that, as the drawings constituted a change to the EIA, the national park was now legally required to re-advertise the plans for consultation, and failure to do so would make the final decision subject to judicial review.
The visualisations show the impact Flamingo Land’s plans would have on the local area, as seen from points such as across the loch and from the other side of the River Leven.
Mr Greer said: “The revelation that of a flawed procedure around the Environmental Impact Assessment and visualisations is particularly important.
“Some of the visualisations show just how much of a scar on the local landscape this development would be, so it’s vital that they are advertised clearly and properly.”
But Jim Paterson, development director for Lomond Banks, said that this stage of planning process – permission in principle – matters such as these were reserved for the detailed application stage.
“This is another spurious attempt by Ross Greer to disrupt the legitimate planning process by scaremongering and presenting misinformation as fact,” he said.
“The planning authority accepted the information, and made it available on the planning portal in accordance with its procedures.
“It does not change the EIA in any way, nor did the planning authority identify any requirement for further consultation or notification.”
There have so far been 321 objections to the site and 30 comments in favour, while a petition organised by Mr Greer has over 30,000 signatures
Full details of the plans are available on the national park authority website – the reference number is 2022/0157/PPP.
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