Scrapping of Flamingo Land Loch Lomond deal backed by 13,000
The exclusivity agreement held by Flamingo Land over land at Scotland's iconic Loch Lomond national park must be ended after 13,000 people backed the move, the Scottish Greens have said.
Scottish Green MSP Ross Greer has presented a petition supported by 13,000 people to the Scottish Government, calling on them to terminate the ‘exclusivity agreement’ which the firm still hold over land at Balloch, despite their ‘resort’ plans having been rejected over a year ago.
In a letter to Government Ministers, the West of Scotland MSP described the situation as 'a long-running saga which has exhausted the community and needs to end'.
Yorkshire-based Flamingo Land withdrew their application for a large, controversial development in Balloch on 17th September 2019 after a record 60,000 objections collected by the Scottish Greens and the community-led Save Loch Lomond campaign.
However, the developer still maintains an 'exclusivity agreement' with Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Government agency who own almost all of the site. This agreement means that only Flamingo Land can buy the land. It had previously been extended by two years but is due to expire this month. It is expected that a further extension would be negotiated if Flamingo Land wished to lodge a new application.
Mr Greer has now written to Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Government's Economy Secretary, urging her to ensure the agreement with Flamingo Land is not renewed.
Ross Greer commented:
“It’s over a year since the community first defeated Flamingo Land’s destructive and unwelcome plans and we still don’t know whether a line can finally be drawn under this or if it will start all over again with a fresh application. This long-running saga has exhausted the community and it needs to end. Flamingo Land lost, they are not welcome and they need to move on.
“Whether or not that happens is ultimately in the hands of the Scottish Government and their economic agency. They can either extend the agreement, again, which would likely mean years of Flamingo Land fighting for an inappropriate, damaging and unwanted development and the community being forced to once again fight back, or they can cancel the exclusivity agreement and support local residents to decide what an appropriate future for the site would be."
