
Emergency public meeting called over Flamingo Land decision
It comes after the Scottish Government reporter upheld an appeal from the Yorkshire-based theme park operator but added 49 conditions to the application.
Balloch and Haldane Community Council has urged the Scottish Government to reverse its decision to recommend planning permission while expressing its 'deep disappointment and outrage' to approve the proposals, which they claim contradicts the 'expressed will' of the local community.
READ MORE:
As part of the conditions, the applicant will now have to reach an agreement with Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority – which rejected the proposals last year – before the application can progress.
Under the £43.5 million proposals, Lomond Banks would see two hotels, more than 100 lodges, a waterpark and monorail built on the site at Balloch, West Dunbartonshire.
The development has been proposed for years, with Lomond Banks pulling out in 2019 before returning with a new application, which has proven controversial with the local community.
Councillor Jim Bollan, who is expected to be part of Friday's panel, said: 'The campaign to save Loch Lomond is at a critical stage.
'I would ask the public to contact their MSPs and urge them to vote for Ross Greer's motion S6M-17650, which is being tabled in the Scottish Parliament to call in and refuse the Flamingo Land application.'
A spokesperson for Balloch and Haldane Community Council previously said: 'This is not just a bad planning decision — it is a fundamental failure of democracy and policy.
'This decision rides roughshod over the principles of community empowerment, environmental protection, and democratic accountability.
'Our community, through proper statutory channels, objected in strong and clear terms. The will of the people has been ignored.'
A Scottish Government spokesperson also said at the time: 'An independent reporter has issued a decision intimating that he is minded to grant planning permission in principle for the proposal subject to 49 planning conditions subject to a legal agreement being reached between the national park authority and developer to secure the employment and environment issues that are set out in the Lomond Promise.
'As the appeal remains live, it would not be appropriate to comment further on the merits of the proposed development.'
The meeting will start at 6.30pm this Friday.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Press and Journal
32 minutes ago
- Press and Journal
Lady Carbisdale locked in court battle with Scottish Government to save land from 'pylon vandalism'
Lady Carbisdale has said she will fight a Scottish Government court bid to force electricity pylons to be installed on her castle's land. The pylons are part of an SSEN plan for a 400kv Spittal to Beauly power line, which crosses into the Carbisdale Castle forests. Samantha Kane, known as Lady Carbisdale, said she intends to fight the matter 'all the way to the Supreme Court.' It follows previous legal action against SSEN raised at Tain Sheriff Court last year. In a letter sent to Lady Carbisdale, which has been seen by the Press and Journal, Scottish Ministers are seeking to a remove a condition on the land which protects it from industrial projects. Lady Carbisdale said the castle lands were transferred to Scottish Ministers in agreement they would 'look after the land and use it for agricultural and forestry use only'. 'It will not include a use to erect super-structures on the land, deliberately close to the castle,' Lady Carbisdale added. The Scottish Government wants to remove the condition so pylons for a new power line can be installed along the grounds. The Spittal to Beauly power line is a Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks project intended to transport the Highland's renewable energy output south to 'areas of demand.' Scottish Ministers have lodged documents with the Lands Tribunal for Scotland to amend the land agreement's conditions. Carbisdale Castle has an over 100-year old history but was most recently purchased by Samantha Kane back in 2022 for £1.2 million. The Iraq-born human rights barrister then took the castle on a £10 million restoration project, which has gone through several visions over the years including as a private members club and Hanging Gardens of Babylon-style attraction. The various projects were put on ice late last year after a dispute with Ardgay and District Community Council raised tensions into what she called a 'hate campaign' on social media, which local residents denied at the time. Lady Carbisdale later listed the castle up for sale. However, the latest venture is a plan to open 'the Highland's first five-star hotel' complete with 'formal landscape gardens' and swimming pool 'with glass front protruding over the Kyle.' Lady Carbisdale said the hotel 'when it opens' will create upwards of 300 full and part-time jobs for the area. She said: 'It is utterly insane to disassemble the restoration project and devastate the castle and it's surrounding forest and loch.' Speaking to the P&J about the court action, Lady Carbisdale says there are alternative routes for the pylons that do not put 'this land that I call home' at risk. She said: 'Since I received the Minster's application to try to annul the condition that protects the castle, 'I have been inundated with messages and letters of support, telling me that if the Government destroys Carbisdale, it will be an outrageous act of vandalism, vendetta and discrimination. 'The condition in the title will remain. 'Carbisdale Castle will continue standing proud, and will be the world's destination, to visit and enjoy and will benefit the community for generations to come.' In response to the case, a Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment on ongoing legal proceedings.' The Lands Tribunal for Scotland said no hearing date has yet been set because the case is 'at a very early stage.' They added: 'We can confirm an application has been received from Scottish Ministers and the respondents are in the process of being notified.'

The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Police Scotland 'breaching human rights to subdue Palestine protests'
Moira McFarlane, an Edinburgh-based activist, said her home had been visited after midnight by three plain-clothes officers – despite the fact that she has never been arrested or charged with anything. 'I'm a 58-year-old yoga teacher. I'm really not a criminal,' she said. 'When they come in knocking on your door at midnight, it's a police state. It's crazy.' Another Palestine activist, Andrew Thomson, said he had been lifted from an Edinburgh street, kept in a police station for eight hours, and charged with terror offences two days after allegedly wearing a t-shirt outside Bute House. READ MORE: Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty dons 'Palestine Action' top at Fringe The t-shirt read 'Genocide in Palestine time to take action'. Other activists have also been charged for wearing clothes with the same or similar slogans as they were alleged to be in support of Palestine Action, a protest group which the Labour Government has proscribed as a terror organisation. The proscription has been condemned by Volker Türk, the UN's human rights chief, who said it puts the UK 'at odds' with international law and 'limits the rights of many people involved with and supportive of Palestine Action who have not themselves engaged in any underlying criminal activity but rather exercised their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association'. Earlier in August, the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) warned Police Scotland that its policing of pro-Palestine protesters risked breaching human rights. Police Scotland's Chief Constable Jo Farrell (Image: PA) Professor Angela O'Hagan, the commission's chair, said in a letter to the Chief Constable, Lord Advocate, and Justice Secretary that rights to free expression and freedom of assembly were guaranteed under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), adding: 'In general, only incitement to violence, the justification of terrorist acts, or the encouragement of violence towards specific people can be restricted. The expression of a political or moral viewpoint is protected.' Police Scotland insisted their actions are "appropriate", but Thomson said that Türk and O'Hagan's warnings are 'exactly what's happened'. 'The key thing is this is excessive and this is draconian policing,' he went on. 'They're conflating political and moral expression with terrorism, and they're doing it deliberately. 'The smear will bring about fear. And in my own understanding, this is what Keir Starmer's Britain is all about. Starmer's Britain requires fear. But for me, for many, many others, and the good people in Scotland, it's Palestine that commands courage.' READ MORE: Leaked document 'leaves Government's Palestine Action case in tatters' Thomson said he was arrested in the Cowgate area on Monday, July 21, after allegations that a t-shirt he had worn on July 19 had expressed support for a terrorist organisation. He then received 'bail checks', where Police Scotland officers turned up on his doorstep, four times in four days. 'I was really alarmed by the fact that the reason for the visits had zero plausibility,' he said, disputing that reaffirming his bail conditions could have been the force's true reason for the visits. 'It is about harassment. It's an intrusion into private family life. Who has signed the order for them to make those four visits? 'I guess what's happening to me just now would be one tactic that Police Scotland undertook to try and subdue protests against the genocide. That seems plausible to me, and definitely there's zero plausibility about reminding of your [bail] condition.' READ MORE: Arms firms lobbied for Palestine Action 'terrorists' label, files show Hours after the Sunday National spoke to Thomson, he received a letter from the Crown Office advising that his court date had been cancelled and bail conditions lifted, just days after SHRC chair O'Hagan's intervention. Both Thomson and McFarlane alleged that Police Scotland had infringed on their human rights. It comes after a third pro-Palestine activist, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign's Mick Napier, 78, sent a legal letter to Police Scotland alleging intimidation after his address was visited by officers seven times in seven days. Mark Harrower, a senior criminal defence lawyer and former president of the Edinburgh Bar Association, suggested that claims of reminding of bail conditions were not credible and the 'only possible explanation for these repeated visits is to intimidate'. 'Not only is this a huge waste of police resources, it makes Scotland look like it is turning into a police state,' Harrower wrote. 'It is nothing short of harassment. I request that your officers stop harassing my client.' The National has also reported on the case of Kimberley Davidson, in the Scottish Borders, who also faced daily visits from police officers claiming to be there to remind her of bail conditions. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "We carry out appropriate checks as required in line with conditions imposed by the courts." A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'The Scottish Government supports individuals' rights to freedom of expression. 'We live in a society where people have the democratic right to campaign and express views in a peaceful and lawful manner.'


Daily Record
3 hours ago
- Daily Record
Ex-Alex Salmond aide denies former First Minister leaked details of sexual harassment probe
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Chris McEleny said he would have been the one to do the leaking and it wasn't something he was asked to do. One Of Alex Salmond's closest aides has denied the late first minister leaked details of his sexual harassment investigation to the media. Chris McEleny, former Alba party General Secretary and bagman for Salmond said the suggestion by Nicola Sturgeon in her memoir, Frankly, was 'blatantly untrue'. Sturgeon claimed in the book that it could have been Salmond himself who disclosed to the media details of a Scottish Government investigation into sexual harassment complaints against him. The details of specific complaints that had been investigated were revealed by our sister paper the Daily Record in August 2018. However McEleny said he was confident Salmond did not leak the material as he would have been the one to do it on his behalf. He said: 'Obviously in politics, when it's opportune to get certain stories out then you find a way to get them out. I just happened to be, more often than not,the person that would get those stories out for Alex. It wasn't an issue he raised with me or asked me to put out. 'To suggest that he would proactively leak something that led to, I would argue, the most damaging front page stories that any Scottish politician ever had to deal with, how would that make sense?' McEleny said that while he disagrees with much of Sturgeon's comments in the book about Salmond and his propensity for revenge against her, he hoped the memoir may finally put an end to the 'psychodrama' of the Salmond/ Sturgeon years. He said: 'I don't imagine many people who no longer like Nicola Sturgeon would say this, but I found much of her book quite enjoyable. 'Particularly when she talks about the lead up to 2007 and the sort of golden years of devolution. Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. 'But when you get to the bits where, for example, she suggests Alex leaked details of the complaint against him it jumps out as it's so blatantly untrue. 'Regardless I think most Nationalists are ready for the psychodrama to end. I don't see how it is going to bring the independence movement back together, but for some people it's the reason for their existence. 'The independence movement needs to move on. Alex was acquitted in Scotland's highest criminal court. He defeated the Scottish Government and they were deemed to have treated him unlawfully. 'I think he now rests as Scotland's greatest ever First Minister, and the book hopefully has brought Nicola some closure.'