Green Planning Policy could be the death knell for Flamingoland plans
Local Green MSP Ross Greer has outlined how the Scottish Government’s new planning policy should rule out any chance of Flamingo Land’s controversial development plans getting the go-ahead.
National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) was developed with significant input from the Scottish Greens after the party joined the Scottish Government in autumn 2021. It has now been approved by the Scottish Parliament and must be used to guide planning decisions by local councils and National Parks. The new framework makes it much harder for environmentally damaging projects to be granted planning permission.
In addition to leading a campaign that has seen over 70,000 objections to Flamingo Land’s plans, Ross also appointed environmental law expert Ian Cowan to draft a detailed objection on his behalf. Following NPF4’s approval by Parliament, Mr Greer and Mr Cowan lodged a supplementary objection which compared the plans to the new framework and concluded that they failed to comply in a number of ways.
For example, the proposed 372 car parking spaces are contrary to the requirements for developments to contribute to tackling the climate emergency and to provide sustainable transport. They also fail to address biodiversity loss and the scale of the impact on the landscape is unacceptable in a National Park.
Ross Greer, Green MSP for the West of Scotland commented:
“Flamingo Land’s plans to impose a huge tourist development on Balloch have always been a terrible idea, and thanks to Green action in Government we now have national planning policy which gives the National Park the power to confidently reject the application. A holiday park with hotels, woodland lodges and 372 more parking spaces is obviously not what we need when we’re facing a climate emergency and when local roads are already struggling.”
“70,000 people have joined me in saying no to this disaster on the Bonny Banks. The National Park are still accepting objections, which readers can lodge at www.greens.scot/FlamingoLand.”