The sale of the former visitor centre in Luss should be delayed so that the community can take it over, a conservation charity has said.
The board of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority was today recommenced to back plans to sell off the building and adjacent land.
It hasn’t been used as a visitor centre for 13 years and has been empty since a lease was ended in 2018 – officials say it is ‘unsuitable for current operational needs’.
But the Friends of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs have pointed out that Luss is the busiest village in the national park, with around a million visitors every year.
They backed an approach by the community of Luss through a community development trust to secure the use of the visitor centre building under the transfer of community assets arrangements, but this has been held up due to a requirement to amend the trust’s constitution.
Friends chair James Fraser said: “The Luss visitor centre and extensive area of adjacent land wedged between the busy main Luss car park and beach are far too important public assets not to be put to good use by the community to assist villagers with the considerable visitor management challenges they are currently facing.
“In the past businesses have been willing to pay a substantial rental charge for the building and funds from this source could be used to cross-subsidise some urgently needed visitor management measures to ease the plight of villagers.
“I am confident that the villagers can step up to the challenge of taking on these assets and using them to good effect as they strive to take more control of over-tourism. which is currently eroding the quality of life for residents as well as the overall quality of the visitor experience in this attractive lochside conservation village.”
Over the past year a series of meetings have been held at the request of the Luss community to try and address the growing problems associated with over tourism.
These have been chaired by MSP Jackie Baillie and attended by villagers, landowners Luss Estates and the Friends as well as senior representatives from public agencies including Police Scotland, Argyll and Bute Council and the park authority.
This led to an action plan being drawn up to try and address the problems arising from visitor pressures, including an increasing number of incidents of anti-social behaviour, extensive littering, and irresponsible behaviour by jet skiers in Luss Bay.
Leave a Reply