10 campers reported for breaching new national park laws

Hundreds of people have been handed warnings and 10 have been reported to prosecutors for breaching new laws on camping in a national park.

A report prepared for Scottish ministers revealed 828 people were issued with warnings by police or Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park rangers for alleged contraventions of the new restrictions.

During the first year of the controversial byelaws, 10 cases were reported to the Crown Office relating to unauthorised camping, fire-lighting, refusing to provide details and refusing to leave when asked to do so.

The byelaws, in place between March and September, restrict camping along much of the shores of Loch Lomond as well as busy loch shores near Aberfoyle, Strathyre and Lochearnhead.

Park authorities say the four camping management zones - which cover less than 4% of the park area - are needed to tackle long-standing problems with antisocial behaviour, litter and environmental damage, but they were fiercely opposed by outdoor recreation groups and campaigners for access rights.

Those wanting to camp have to buy a permit or use official sites, with the report revealing that while more than 16,000 people did so, the average occupancy rate across all of the camping permit areas was only 15%, and 22% at Loch Chon campsite.

Challenges identified by the park for future years include the monitoring of potential displacement of campers to other nearby areas, the level of resources needed to maintain the byelaws in the long-term and continuing problems with litter and human waste.

Helen Todd, campaigns and policy manager at Ramblers Scotland, said: “This new report shows that these costly byelaws are deterring people from camping, criminalising responsible campers and failing to resolve many of the issues they were designed to tackle.

“It's a great shame that more than £1.1 million has been spent over two years on a strategy that has led to an average of just 15% of camping permit sites being used each night, and which has penalised hundreds of people who wanted to camp in this beautiful part of Scotland.

“We continue to call for the byelaws to be withdrawn, and for issues with anti-social behaviour and over-use of camping spots to instead be tackled by educating people, enforcing existing laws and providing toilets, bins and low-cost campsites.''

Gordon Watson, the park's chief executive, said: “The seasonal camping byelaws were introduced to protect the Park's precious loch shores and improve the experience for visitors.

“From the positive feedback we've gathered through the visitor survey, to what our rangers have experienced by talking to campers on the ground during the first season, we are really pleased with how things have gone.

“Nearly 15,000 people camped in the new permit areas and more than 2,000 at our new campsite at Loch Chon.

“Feedback surveys were sent to everyone who camped and, as well as getting a strong response rate, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

“Some 87% of respondents said they would be likely to recommend staying in a permit area to others while 92% said they would be likely to recommend the Loch Chon campsite.

“The approach of our ranger service is always engagement and education first, with enforcement action only being taken as a last resort. That approach has worked well, with the vast majority of campers choosing to adhere to the byelaws.

“While warnings were issued, the number was small in proportion to the overall number of visitors and only a very small number of people were then reported to the procurator fiscal.'