‘No repeat of Flamingo Land’
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer has proposed a change in the law which would force the Scottish Government to ‘put nature first’ within National Parks. The party co-leader believes this would prevent a repeat of the decade-long Flamingo Land mega-resort saga at Loch Lomond.
The proposal has been put forward as an amendment to the Scottish Government’s Natural Environment Bill. It would extend the Sandford Principle, a legal guideline that states when there is a conflict between a National Park conserving the natural environment and other aims such as promoting economic development, then conservation must be given priority.
This principle currently applies to National Park Authorities when they decide on issues such as planning applications. However, it does not apply to Scottish Government Ministers when they make decisions in regards to National Parks, such as any appeals against the Park Authority’s planning decisions. Greer’s amendment would extend this principle to decisions taken in regard to National Parks by Scottish Ministers.
The Sandford Principle was heavily cited by the board of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority when they unanimously rejected Flamingo Land’s mega-resort proposal in September 2024 on the basis of flood risk and substantial damage to the natural environment.
Flamingo Land’s application was the most unpopular in Scottish planning history, with over 150,000 people submitting objections, as well as expert organisations including the Woodland Trust and Ramblers Scotland.
If the Sandford principle had applied to the Scottish Government, Mr Greer believes Flamingo Land would have been unlikely to even submit the appeal currently sitting on the desk of Ministers.
It would also have likely halted the widely opposed Loch Long salmon farm development, which had been rejected by the National Park only to be approved by Ministers in August of this year.
Ross said:
“Our National Parks quite rightly have to put protection of the natural environment first in their decision-making, so it's absurd that Ministers can disregard that when making their own decisions about what happens within the Parks.
“If a planning application within a National Park is refused because of the environmental damage it would do, any appeal against that decision should be held to the same standards. Otherwise, what exactly is the point of designating these areas as National Parks in the first place?
“That lower standard for appeal decisions is what allowed the Scottish Government to approve a controversial and widely opposed industrial salmon farm proposal at Loch Long.
“And of course, it means there is a very real risk of Ministers approving Flamingo Land’s daft and destructive plans to wreck the banks of Loch Lomond.
“We need to treat our National Parks like the special places that they are. My proposals are just a common-sense recognition of our responsibility towards Scotland’s world-famous natural environment.
“These iconic landscapes must be protected, not sold off to dodgy developers or theme park operators who would cause irreversible damage by building all over them.
“Our nature is in a state of crisis and Ministers need to act like it. At the very least they should apply high standards of environmental protection when making decisions about what goes on within our National Parks.”