Loch Lomond bylaws - a call for nation-wide discussions

THE Loch Lomond & Trossachs National Park have proposed a new set of bylaws that would ban wild camping in many areas throughout the Park in an attempt to combat loutish behaviour, vandalism and litter.

Three years ago bylaws were created on East Loch Lomond between Drymen and north of Rowardennan and encouraged by the apparent success of this the Park board now wants to extend the bylaws to other areas.

The proposals have been vigorously opposed by many people, including Ramblers Scotland and the MCof S and I wrote a column, outlining my own personal feelings, on the WalkHighlands website.

I very much welcome the contribution by Gordon Watson, the new CEO of the LL&TNP and you can read his comments here.

I particularly welcome Gordon's intervention because I sincerely believe this issue needs a bigger and wider debate, for reasons I'll discuss further on.

I also appfreciate the comments of the former Chief Inspector of police, Kevin Findlater, the officer who led the policing of Loch Lomond until he retired in 2013.

In a feature by Rob Edwards in today's Sunday Herald (see the content on Rob's blog.) Kevin describes the proposed bylaws as "badly crafted, cynical and shameful." He goes on to say; "The bylaws themselves are wholly unnecessary, draconian and drive a coach and horses through the right to roam so valued in all of Scotland."

In the same feature former boss of Ramblers Scotland Dave Morris agrees with Kevin.

"The Park Authority needs to abandon its bylaws proposals immediately and sit down with Police Scotland, outdoor organisations and other experts and work out sensible solutions," he said.

Let me make something very clear at this point. I have every sympathy for the problems the Park board is facing but I have even more sympathy for the people who live in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs area and have had to put up with loutish and often criminal behaviour from certain visitors for generations.

Problems on Bank Holidays and at various other times of the year are not new in the Loch Lomond area and I have often witnessed it at first hand. It is deplorable that various individuals think they can use the shores of the area's lochs and disturb others with their weekend piss-ups and even more deplorable that these people should threaten, in any way, the local community.

Indeed I reluctantly supported the original bylaws on the basis that East Loch Lomond was a 'special case' and on the promise that the bylaws would be a temporary solution.

However, there are many indications that the East Loch Lomond bylaws have had the effect of displacing the offenders to other areas of the Park and even beyond. There have been press reports of similar problems of litter and vandalism in Glen Etive and near Braemar in Aberdeenshire. And that means that solutions are necessary for the whole of Scotland, and not just in the National Park.

That's why I'm supporting the Ramblers and the MCofS and calling for the National Park to abandon, or at least shelf, their bylaw proposals and join in nation-wide talks on the subject of wild camping and irresponsible behavious in the countryside. These discussions should include local community groups, Police Scotland, the outdoor user groups and the Scottish Government.

It would appear that the kernel of the problem, as the National Park board sees it, is irresponsible wild camping. I don't believe this subject is explained well enough in the Scottish Outdoor Code, which supports the access provisions in the Land Reform (Scotland) Act and definitions of 'wild camping' need to be clarified.

While some think wild camping is something done by backpackers who are on a walking journey and stealth camp at night before moving on, others obviously believe it gives them the right to park their caravan in a laybye all week long and just visit at weekends!

That is why it is necessary to have the Scottish Government involved in discussions and I call on Gordon Watson and his board to lay aside their bylaw proposals for the moment and join talks to discuss the issues in an attempt to find nation-wide solutions.

If not then we could have the ludicrous situation of a backpacker being criminalised in the National Park for doing what he can legally do in other areas of Scotland, and that's just madness.