IT is good to see that Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead was on the shores of Loch Lomond to open a new visitor facility, An Ceann Mor, to encourage visitors to get out of their vehicles and enjoy the magnificent scenery ("Pyramid expected to pull in more visitors to admire 'stunning vista'", The Herald, May 14).

Your editorial is absolutely correct in emphasising that these are world-class landscapes which, however, too many people only enjoy from within a vehicle. Yes, we must do more to persuade people to stop and take a look around, benefiting both themselves and the local economy.

What a pity then that the Cabinet Secretary was not able to stay a little longer and put up his tent. He would have enjoyed another world-class experience, before it is too late. Unfortunately, Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority want to introduce byelaws which will ban the public from camping near to Loch Lomond and many other lochs in the park and thereby ignoring the obligations placed upon them by the Scottish Parliament when it passed the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.

This park authority has, over the last 10 years, done very little to provide the range and scale of camping facilities this area has needed since the 1950s. It masks this inability by promoting byelaws to make it illegal to do something the Scottish Parliament had secured in the 2003 Act. Today camping wild in Scotland is our statutory right, to do high on a mountain, or beside our motor vehicle, providing we do this in a responsible way and leave no impact. That right applies to everyone, of every age and every level of mobility. The park is the only public body in Scotland whic appears to not understand this.

My daughter Esme loved to camp. Before the age of 11 she had camped in many parts of Scotland and elsewhere in Europe. She camped beside the Colorado River, in the Grand Canyon; below Shivling, in the Indian Himalaya; in fact anywhere where this was the best way to enjoy the outdoors. She then battled a brain tumour before her death in 2013. For seven years her access to the natural environment had required a wheelchair, walking frame, tricycle, snowbike or ski stick to help her unsteady walk. It is not easy to re-engage with the outdoors after you have spent four months in a hospital bed. When you are disabled camping close to your motor vehicle is one of the remaining joys of life.

The board of this national park appears to not understand that its primary responsibilities are to help people like Esme and all citizens of Scotland to enjoy the outdoors, within the framework of the 2003 act. The Cabinet Secretary needs to think deeply about his brief exposure to the beautiful bonnie banks and take the appropriate action on behalf of us all. If not, the Scottish Parliament or the 2016 electorate may need to remind him that camping is for us all to enjoy, throughout our national parks.

Dave Morris,

2 Bishop Terrace, Kinnesswood, Kinross.