Loch Lomond and Flamingo Land: A Match Made in Hell

After Grangemouth, comes Loch Lomond. One of Scotland’s many natural treasures is under threat.

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, created in 2002, lies in the Central Belt of Scotland and is one of the most popular locations for leisure in Scotland. Many at the site can participate in water activities, go on long walks, book boat tours or even picnic at the park itself among many other things.

The beautiful blue water covers the area like a blanket while its few dozen islands, large and small, poke out of the water, creating a stunning view. It’s surely a breathtaking place. Evidently perfect for a corporate takeover!

The theme park, zoo and resort company Flamingo Land enters the scene as the main villain of this story. And its evil scheme is to build a tourist attraction at the park.

Lomond Banks is the name of the planned resort drawn up under Flamingo Land and it would see the construction of two hotels, more than 100 lodges, a waterpark and monorail along the loch in West Dunbartonshire.

Now I’m not against businesses investing in projects for economic activity, don’t get me wrong. But if this goes ahead then it will no doubt hold many negatives for the area.

The main road, the A82, which apparently is already quite the struggle for queuing and movement, will become even more hectic and congested, with over 250 cars on the road estimated by the company during rush hour. This will no doubt worsen the local quality of life and damage the environment.

Speaking of the environment, Flamingo Land also intends to build on polluted ground. The site would be developed on top of an area where just a short distance down there is pollution from an old dye works that used to be on the lochside. By building this resort, it could potentially cause the flow of old dye pollutants and other damaging materials into bodies of water like Loch Lomond. This would be catastrophic for long-term sustainability, because it would largely also affect the river Leven and lower Clyde.

The main road, the A82, which apparently is already quite the struggle for queuing and movement, will become even more hectic and congested, with over 250 cars on the road estimated by the company during rush hour. This will no doubt worsen the local quality of life and damage the environment.

Flamingo Land is also notorious for its poor working conditions. They offer the outdated and, frankly, obscene form of employment known as zero-hour contracts and keep people below the breadline by paying below the minimum wage. It’s also been reported that the company has a lackluster performance when it comes to career progression for its employees due to a lack of promotions and real opportunities. The company also seeks to always hire labour outsourced from elsewhere, using a non-local workforce. Which leads to my next point.

The plan itself may not even be realistic. Flamingo Land claims it shall cost £43.5m to develop it. This ought to be fine for a company that receives tens of millions of pounds in revenue turnover. However, after all expenditures, only £4.6m is available in cash from their company accounts, meaning nearly £36m or 89% of its projected cost must surely come through loans or by selling some of their assets to follow through with this plan, though no one knows if it’ll be delivered on time and on budget.

A friend of mine and a local to West Dunbartonshire, Kristopher Duncan, has said of this project: “I’m a bit angry. It’s something we haven’t wanted in our area and is now being forced on us. Ignoring the will of the people… It affects me because of travel and transport. It’s going to get harder for no real benefit.”

The worst result of it all is that it’s just simply a bad deal for local communities with no positive outcome. Having an outsourced workforce effectively drains the local area of needed resources without the money earned by workers to invest in and thereby support the communities surrounding it. With this, Flamingo Land enters the market, beating out the local business competitors and taking money out of the economy.

The Scottish Government rejected the decision by the National Park Authority Board to refuse the proposals and approved the Flamingo Land’s plan with 49 conditions attached to the planning application.

The Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, the Ramblers, the National Trust for Scotland, the Woodland Trust, several MSPs, council members and the board of the park itself do not accept Flamingo Land’s plans yet they have all been overruled.

As of now, the petition by the Save Loch Lomond Campaign to oppose the plans has received over 150,000+ signatures in support to oppose the project and many groups and individuals have banded together to preserve it including the Scottish Green Party, the Alba Party and even some in the Scottish Labour Party.

All is not lost, however.

The immediate future of Loch Lomond has been saved, but we can only wait for what its long-term fate will be because Flamingo Land tried a similar scheme before so we’ll see what happens. There should be only one choice for this: the Scottish Government must save the park, come what may. If not, then future generations will miss out on an undisturbed national attraction and the voters, those local to it anyway, shall punish the SNP next year.

The Scottish Government has since halted the plans following immense pressure, with the Public Finance Minister Ivan McKee announcing the plans for the development to be recalled (much to Jim Paterson’s outrage).

By Lewis Atkinson

Sources:https://www.visitscotland.com/places-to-go/national-parks/loch-lomond-trossachs:https://news.stv.tv/west-central/plans-for-flamingo-land-resort-on-loch-lomond-recalled-by-scottish-governmenthttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c19d8kvd0m8ohttps://www.scotsman.com/hays-way/appalling-flamingo-attraction-with-155000-objections-given-go-ahead-by-scottish-government-5132889https://news.stv.tv/west-central/plans-to-build-flamingo-land-resort-on-banks-of-loch-lomond-divide-local-residents-in-balloch#:~:text=The%20£43m%20project%20on,%2C%20water%20park%2C%20and%20spahttps://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC052543/filing-historyhttps://www.railscot.co.uk/locations/L/Loch_Lomond_Factory_Silk_Dyeing/ https://theferret.scot/flamingo-land-tory-failed-to-pay-minimum-wage/#:~:text=Flamingo%20Land%20Limited%2C%20which%20donated%20%C2%A3186%2C000%20to,pay%20%C2%A33%2C033%20to%20four%20of%20its%20workers.&text=The%20Scottish%20Greens%20condemned%20the%20company%20for,the%20UK%20Government%20for%20allegedly%20underpaying%20staff.https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2025/05/21/the-flamingo-land-appeal-the-reporters-decision-was-predictable-but-the-battle-for-balloch-is-far-from-over-yet/#:~:text=a)%20On%20employment%20issues%20to,visitors%20to%20other%20local%20businesses;https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/campaigners-welcome-decision-call-flamingo-35372155.amphttps://www.dumbartonreporter.co.uk/news/25231971.local-group-proposes-something-better-flamingo-land-recall/https://scottishleftreview.scot/flamingo-lands-lomond-banks/https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-500-companies-named-for-not-paying-minimum-wagehttps://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/53-yorkshire-companies-named-in-government-list-failing-to-pay-minimum-wage-including-morrisons-flamingo-land-and-cranswick-4526609

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