Ross Greer campaigns against the proposed Flamingo Land on Loch Lomond

Ross Greer campaigns against the proposed Flamingo Land

Transcript

00:01This has been a decade-long saga. It should have ended a long time ago, but Flamingo Land

00:06just keep coming back and we're at the stage now where the final report has now been submitted

00:12to ministers. That happened just a couple of days ago. So the only people left to make

00:16a decision are ministers of the Scottish Government. We're back here today to send

00:21the message to them, to remind them that the public expect them to save Loch Lomond, to

00:25protect our natural heritage and reject this ridiculous, damaging proposal. We've beaten

00:31Flamingo Land every step of the way for a decade now. Every time they've come back with this

00:36ludicrous, destructive proposal, we've been able to pull together the arguments because

00:41the evidence is on our side of the economic damage it would do, the disruption to local

00:46roads, the huge amount of environmental damage and the harm that then does to our natural

00:51heritage. Loch Lomond is the crown jewel of Scotland's natural environment. We've been

00:55able to pull together all that evidence and put that to the decision makers at every stage.

01:00That's why the National Parks Board unanimously rejected this application last year. So we're

01:06feeling optimistic that if the Government are willing to listen to the evidence, it's so

01:10clearly on one side that they'll have no option but to reject Flamingo Land. It would set a horrendous

01:16precedent if this company is allowed to come in and exploit Loch Lomond just to make a quick buck.

01:23The reality is Baloch and the surrounding area already do exceptionally well from the visitor

01:28economy, from tourists and day visitors. On a day like today where the sun's out, the A82 will grind

01:33to a halt. It always does, especially going into a weekend. What we are actually seeing with

01:38Flamingo Land is a huge risk to existing local businesses. This is a company based in Yorkshire.

01:43The profits they make will not be reinvested in the local community but they will take business

01:48and trade away from the small businesses who currently make up most of our local tourist

01:53economy. Those are businesses who do reinvest their money in the local economy because they're

01:57owned and operated by people who actually live in Baloch and around Loch Lomond. If they're replaced

02:02by this one massive mega resort, and that's what it would do, it would push trade away from these

02:07local businesses and into its enclosed resort, that is actually really damaging to the local economy and to

02:13the community. We reflect on the fact that this has gone on for a decade quite a lot when we're

02:18talking to local residents in Baloch and Save Loch Lomond campaigners and we're all really frustrated

02:22because we could have spent the last decade on really positive projects to develop the local

02:27community, to bring more opportunities in, to take full advantage of our incredible natural heritage,

02:33the cultural opportunities, and instead we've all spent the last 10 years on the defensive,

02:38fighting back against this greedy company that just won't take no as an answer. It's just so

02:44frustrating. The government have the opportunity now to finally draw an end to this saga. They

02:49have an opportunity to say no, this application is being rejected and Flamingo Land's exclusive

02:56contract to the land is also being ended. It was wrong for the government to give them the exclusive

03:00rights to develop here in the first place. You cannot develop on land that is both a floodplain

03:05and contaminated. If Flamingo Land want to walk away from most of the site, there is one small part

03:11of it, there's a derelict building from the 18th century. If they want to redevelop that, we've

03:15already told them we will happily work with them to do that, but they simply cannot build a mega resort

03:20on a piece of land that is both a floodplain and contaminated.