Green light for housing plans in Trossachs

A PLAN to make Scotland’s first national park a place where more people can live and work has been given the go-ahead.

Housing has long been recognised as a serious problem for retaining a balanced population in national parks. So there will be an annual target of 75 new homes to meet demand for smaller, more modest-sized and affordable homes for young people, families and older people.

In all, the plan sets out more than 70 potential opportunities to develop housing, business and tourism within Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park over the next decade.

Named “LIVE Park”, it is designed to protect the park’s unique environment, while helping people live in it.

Now formally adopted by the National Park Authority as its Local Development Plan, the legal document will be used to determine all planning decisions in the park, and it will be updated every five years.

It will facilitate sites for tourism and leisure development to enhance the quality of the park as a visitor destination.

New businesses in and around towns and villages will be supported to create local jobs and diversify the rural economy. A new bridge, housing, hotel and riverside park are earmarked for Callander, the largest town in the national park.

A central village hub will be created in Arrochar alongside housing and tourism development at Arrochar, Succoth and Tarbet.

Listed buildings such as Balloch Castle and Woodbank House will be brought back into use and Balloch village centre will be improved.

Gordon Watson, chief executive of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park, said: “The National Park is an amazing place and a special landscape with so much to offer and LIVE Park sets out the opportunities for it to continue to thrive and develop sensitively as a place for people to live, invest, visit and experience over the next 10 years.”