Time to end Flamingo Land saga
The Scottish Greens would cancel the Scottish Government’s exclusive agreement with Flamingo Land to develop a site at Loch Lomond, ending the decade-long saga over the company’s destructive mega-resort proposals for Balloch.
The Yorkshire-based theme park operator is mounting a court challenge against the Scottish Government’s decision to finally reject their controversial plans, which would have seen two hotels, a waterpark, over 100 woodland lodges, a monorail and more all crammed into the site. The developer’s own impact assessment estimated that this would add more than 250 additional cars onto congested local roads like the A82 at peak times.
For the past ten years Scottish Greens co-leader Ross Greer has worked with residents in Balloch and a Scotland-wide campaign to defeat Flamingo Land’s repeated attempts to build the mega-resort.
Throughout this period Flamingo Land have benefited from an exclusivity agreement (now referred to as a conditional missive), giving them sole rights to purchase the West Riverside site from the Scottish Government should their mega-resort plans be approved. This agreement has effectively blocked any community-led alternatives from advancing.
The first version of the garish proposals was withdrawn at the last minute in 2019 to avoid near-certain rejection, only for the second version to be unanimously rejected by the board of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park in September 2024. Flamingo Land then appealed that decision with the Scottish Government.
A government official controversially approved the plans on appeal in June 2025, but following intense public backlash, including tens of thousands of people joining the Scottish Greens’ call for Ministers to step in, the Scottish Government was forced to recall that decision.
A final notice of rejection was issued by Planning Minister Ivan McKee in February of this year. It is that decision which Flamingo Land is now seeking to reverse via the courts.
Flamingo Land’s proposal is the most unpopular planning application in Scottish history, with 155,000 people submitting objections through a campaign led by Scottish Greens. They were joined by local community groups and expert organisations including the Woodland Trust and Ramblers Scotland, as well as the National Park’s own expert planning officers and national environment watchdog SEPA.
Scottish Green co-leader Ross Greer said:
“For the past ten years Flamingo Land have tried to force their daft and destructive plans onto the iconic banks of Loch Lomond. They’ve attempted to wear down, outspend, bully and exhaust the people of Balloch.
“This saga has gone on for so long because of a sweetheart deal given to them by the Scottish Government over a decade ago. This gives the company a grip on the land and stops the community from bringing forward their own plans for the site.
"Once this final desperate legal challenge is dismissed, the Scottish Greens would cancel their exclusive agreement to the site and help the community to move on from this long nightmare.
“We simply cannot allow one of Scotland’s most iconic sites to be held to ransom for another decade by a theme park operator who can’t take no for an answer.
“It was wrong for the Scottish Government to extend the agreement after Flamingo Land’s first bid failed in 2019. That allowed the threat to hang over the community for another seven years. Ministers should have listened to the Scottish Greens then and cancelled that exclusive deal back then, but they did not.
“It is ridiculous that this saga has gone on for so long. Flamingo Land has shown that they won’t take no for an answer. They clearly feel no shame and won’t walk away unless their deal is ended.
“The second that Flamingo Land’s desperate legal challenge fails the Scottish Government must finally rip-up the agreement and apologise to local people for the stress the last decade has caused them.”
