OPINION Councillor Sally Page: National Park puts tourism before the environment

However, Scottish Enterprise, the commercial arm of the SNP Scottish government, has partnered Flamingo Land Limited in proposing a project that is so far from the image that people have in their minds of a national park.

The scale of Lomond Banks beggars belief. So many of the freedoms local people have enjoyed for years, such as the launch slipway, car parking, walks, access to the water and beach will be swamped. This is an appalling way for a government to treat people, particularly as the loch has for so long been a haven for the Vale and those who choose for economic or other reasons not to go away for their holidays.

The track record of Scottish Enterprise is not a great one. Lomond Shores ticks over, but nothing like the predictions when it was first built, so let’s not have another bright idea from Scottish Enterprise. In the Cairngorm National Park a failed funicular railway project has required millions of pounds of public funding to try to keep it afloat and is currently out of operation.

So we have to question the wisdom of the National Park planners. If Lomond Banks goes ahead, against the wishes of thousands of people, we will know that the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park puts tourism before the environment and tourists before local residents. What a shame so few of the planning committee live in the National Park.

The Green Party have 44,000 signatures on a petition, against Lomond Banks, which is great. Please could the Green Party show they really mean business by not propping-up the SNP Scottish Government, which has centralised decision-making and left every council in Scotland short of cash.

Through a simple approach of regular litter collections, improved signage, public transport, road maintenance and parking, the landscape and natural beauty can speak for themselves and such a crass development should not be needed to attract visitors.