THE success of the by-laws recently trialled on the east side of Loch Lomond is now being followed by plans to roll out similar measures for all the other areas of Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park affected by the blight of irresponsible wild camping ("£10m move to cut wild camping at Loch Lomond.", The Herald October 7).
It has always been clear to me that park-wide by-laws covering camping and drinking were inevitable because only tough measures like this could ever deliver the traction necessary for police and rangers to properly address the problem. Politically, it would never have been possible to achieve this in one fell swoop.
What is disappointing, however, is the failure to include the islands of Loch Lomond within the new proposals. These gems are every bit at risk as the other loch shore areas so it is hard to understand why park officials have left them out.
And where does this leave the areas around the national park which will now be subject to much more serious levels of abuse as displaced "wild campers" look for somewhere else to pitch their tents? As it is, in Argyll, we are already seeing heavier use of previously quiet spots like Ardmore Point and surely it can only be a matter of time before we see demands for by-laws to control the excesses which will now increasingly manifest themselves in beautiful waterside locations on the periphery of the national park and maybe further afield.
The park's authority's bit-by-bit extension of wild camping by-laws is beginning to look like nothing less than a de facto re-writing of a key part of the Land Reform Act. And far from the recent Land Reform Act Review Group's conclusion that all that was necessary was "continuing improvements in implementation, rather than changes to statute", there is clearly now a need to seriously rethink the section of the act which deals with wild camping.
The right to take responsible access and camp on "most land in Scotland" was given with the best of intentions, but the problem is - and was always going to be - that not everyone is responsible.
The law of unintended consequences is alive and well and the legislators will need to sit up and take notice.
Scotland could do worse than adopt the approach taken by national parks in Europe and in North America where wild camping is licensed. The fee is minimal, just enough to cover administrative costs, but the benefits are immeasurable. With your licence comes educational material about how to camp responsibly and of course the licence provides the traction needed by police, rangers and land managers when they are faced with groups of happy campers whose understanding of "wild" runs more towards bevvy than bivvy.
John Urquhart,
Balmillig,
64B Colquhoun Street,
Helensburgh.
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