Chloe McDermott

Written: 14/04/2023

It seems Flamingo Land are determined to try and build a water park at Loch Lomond after the come back for second round of applications. However, they were not the only one is filled with determination, the Save Loch Lomond campaign have hit round 2 with all the got.

In recent years you might have heard of news that Flamingo Land – amusement park company – who operate a theme park in England now want to buy up land at perhaps Scotland’s most iconic Loch’s.  Then When it received a record-breaking number of objections of 60,000, to their plans they were stopped in their tracks.

Well, now they are back but luckily for those who object to a Flamingo Land Water Park the collective efforts of the Save Loch Lomond campaign in partnership with the Scottish Greens have struck gold again. This time the objections have reached over 70,000 on the Scottish Greens Website alone.

I talked to Sam Paton,48, about her experience campaigning for the rejection of Flamingo Lands plans and she explained why it has been so controversial and the campaign so successful so far. She explained that part of the reason it is so controversial is the fact it is public land being sold at a loss. She said: “When it came to selling on the land to Flamingo Land it was for something ridiculous like £200,000 which considering it was bought for quite a few million just seems a heavy loss.”

She expressed disappointment about the original deal and how it all went down. She explained that the land was originally bought around 20 years ago. Scottish Enterprise bought the land for some millions of pounds from private companies

 Then it came to choosing which organisation would get to buy the land and the choice was made by a board that consisted of Scottish enterprise, the National Park and local councillors from the local authority. She said: “they invited businesses and organisations to submit plans with what they would like to do with the land. They themselves chose Flamingo Land. We don’t know to this day who these other organisations were.”

On top of which what is being offered in return seems to be a net loss overall for the community. When those on the campaign have spoken to Flamingo Land, they get the reply that there will be job’s. However, Ms Paton pointed out that these jobs will be seasonal and low paid.

Not only this being local to Balloch and a mile away from where the proposed water park will be Sam expressed concern about anti – social behaviour in the Summer if these current plans go ahead. She said: “After certain times in the summer we don’t have public transport because it becomes dangerous for staff to operate them due to the amount of drunk and disorderly behaviour. And if you are adding a place like Flamingo Land into that mix then it’s just going to get worse.”

She noted that the Police have also expressed concern about this as they will have to be the one’s to deal with such behaviour and they are already ‘stretched’ during the Summer.

When it comes to the environmental impact one of the big concerns is congestion and wildlife disruption. She said:  “we have a lot of wildlife around Loch Lomond and even though we have Lomond shores and houses we still have a lot of wildlife even in those built up areas and something like this would totally disrupt that as well.”

When people are asked during a meeting held by the organisers of the campaign, they came up with ideas focused on Eco Tourism. Someone even suggested a water school or a living museum – about the local area or industrial history in Scotland etc. These suggestions came out of an engaged group of around 100 people in the local community.

Save Loch Lomond campaign are still encouraging people to get involved in anyway they can. They hope to see that after this round they will withdraw and not come back and with over 70,000 objections so far optimism is high.