The MCofS submitted an objection to North Ayrshire Council for a planning application to establish a helicopter landing site near Brodick. the objection. We understand that the applicants intention is to run helitourism flights over the Arran mountains, flying at least 10 times a day on at least 105 days in the year.

The Council have now decided there were insufficient grounds on which they could refuse the application, which was consequently passed, and the development is expected to proceed.

A number of groups have called for the Scottish Parliament to legislate urgently to plug the gap in legislation which allows developments such as this to proceed unopposed, and to protect Scotlands mountains and wild places from the intrusion of tourist flights. Included is The Scottish Council for National Parks who have found that Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park board has no powers to prevent proposed seaplane flights from Loch Lomond.

Previous attempts to establish heli-tourism facilities have folded in the face of pressure from local objections, most notably an attempt to run flights around the Skye Cuillin in 1997 (earlier story)

Mike Dales, the MCofS Access and Conservation Officer said: "When this happened previously, we asked where it would stop. Today, it is Arran or Loch Lomond. Next it will be Glencoe, Cairngorms or Torridon. Our wild places are suffering death by a thousand cuts. In objecting to the proposal on Skye many people expressed the view that the Scottish mountains should not be treated as a theme park, which is what many believe has happened in places like New Zealand where helicopter flights are now common and have driven visitors seeking other experiences away from certain sites."

National Planning Policy Guideline on the Natural Heritage (NPPG14.)
Paragraph 16 of NPPG14 was influenced by the MCofS campaign against the overflying of the Cuillin. This paragraph states: "The most sensitive landscapes may have little or no capacity to accept new development. Some of Scotland's remoter mountain and coastal areas possess an elemental quality from which many people derive psychological and spiritual benefits. Such areas are very sensitive to any forms of development or intrusive human activity and planning authorities should take great care to safeguard their wild land character. This care should extend to the assessment of proposals for development outwith these areas which might adversely affect their wild land character."

Influencing the inclusion of this paragraph is a significant achievement for the MCofS, and does give planners a strong and valid reason to turn down this kind of proposal. At the time of the planning applications on Skye the planners claimed there was no guidance on which to base a refusal. However, we quoted this paragraph in our objection to the Arran application and yet the proposal was given consent, so the NPPG14 guidance might still not be sufficiently robust.

The MCofS will continue to report on and object to developments of this type, and lobby for the planning legislation to be tightened.

Read the full text of NPPG 14