Challenge to stop unlawful and ecologically damaging parking development in the Cairngorms National Park

As part of our Litigation for Nature Project, we’re holding to account the Scottish agencies responsible for the development of unlawful and ecologically damaging parking alongside Loch Morlich in the Cairngorms National Park.

The work already undertaken has caused significant damage to veteran Caledonian pine trees immediately adjacent to a Special Area of Conservation and a SSSI in which they are a protected characteristic. If the work is not remediated, we think that the trees may eventually die. The work also seems to be at risk of leaching sediment into the protected freshwater site of Loch Morlich.

It seems, amazingly, that no form of environmental impact assessment was undertaken and no consent or planning permission was granted for the works. We think the works are clearly unlawful and we are working hard to ensure that they are permanently halted and the damage remediated as far as possible.

We see this as an example of a wider disregard for environmental protection laws in public bodies. The law is shown again and again as an important part of the toolkit in challenging such attitudes and we hope it will prove its use again here.

Read our letter to the Scottish agencies involved in this work here.