{"id":313704,"date":"2025-08-03T05:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T05:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313704\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T05:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T05:12:13","slug":"snp-handling-of-flamingo-land-resort-appeal-appears-unlawful-as-scrutiny-mounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/313704\/","title":{"rendered":"SNP handling of Flamingo Land resort appeal ‘appears unlawful’ as scrutiny mounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Scottish Government is facing questions over its conduct in the ongoing appeal over controversial plans to build a holiday resort in Loch Lomond.\"EDINBURGH,Ross Greer addresses campaigners against the Flamingo Land development outside parliament in May(Image: Jeff J Mitchell, Getty Images)<\/p>\n

SNP ministers have been accused of \u201cunlawful and biased\u201d conduct in an appeal over Flamingo Land\u2019s controversial Loch Lomond resort.<\/a><\/p>\n

The claim is part of a letter of complaint lodged by Green MSP<\/a> Ross Greer through his lawyer \u2013 which also raises fears key documents may have been falsified.<\/p>\n

It comes after the Scottish Government \u201ccalled in\u201d the \u00a343million bid for a resort on the shore<\/a> at Balloch, Dunbartonshire, proposed by theme park operator Flamingo Land.<\/p>\n

Scottish Government civil servants had granted the planning application \u2013 overturning an earlier rejection by Loch Lomond<\/a> and the Trossachs National Park.<\/p>\n

But this was met by fury from campaigners and politicians against the bid \u2013 including Greer and Labour\u2019s Jackie Baillie, who threatened a parliamentary vote. Now ministers<\/a> have been forced to reconsider the case.<\/p>\n

\"CouncillorsArtist’s impression of the Lomond Banks proposal led by Flamingo Land(Image: Copyright Unknown)<\/p>\n

But Greer has now hit out at \u201cdeeply questionable\u201d decisions in the government\u2019s recent handling of the case \u2013 including sanctioning a new sped-up draft planning agreement<\/a> led by Flamingo Land\u2019s developers.<\/p>\n

It follows the reappointment of a senior official, Reporter David Buylla,<\/a> to organise the case and recommend to \u00administers despite being the one who approved the resort.<\/p>\n

Greer, who is running to be Scottish Greens<\/a> co-leader, said: \u201cThey refuse to hold any public hearings and have asked the same official who tried to approve the plans to mark his own homework by making recommendation for a fresh decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they\u2019re asking Flamingo Land to draft their own planning conditions on their own terms, against the wishes of the National Park. Is it any wonder that local people get the feeling that the cards are being stacked against them?\u201d<\/p>\n

It comes as lawyers for the National Park<\/a> last week \u00adcriticised the new process as \u201chighly unorthodox\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"flamingoFlamingo Land’s park at Kirby Misperton near Malton, Yorkshire<\/p>\n

In a separate letter to Scotland\u2019s Chief Planner, Greer\u2019s lawyer Ian Cowan warned ministers<\/a> aren\u2019t following proper procedure and their handling of the called-in appeal \u201cappears to be both unlawful\u201d and \u201ctainted by bias\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said the process should be \u201cabandoned\u201d and replaced with a fairer one.<\/p>\n

Cowan added: \u201cMy client does not question Mr \u00adBuylla\u2019s professionalism. But the recall of the appeal<\/a> should have meant that he played no further part in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also questioned \u201canomalies\u201d in key files published by the government\u2019s<\/a> appeals division last month.<\/p>\n

A \u201cminute of appointment\u201d reappointing Mr Buylla to prepare a report for ministers<\/a> was published on July 4, but purportedly signed off by a senior planning official on June 24.<\/p>\n

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However, the document doesn\u2019t carry the official\u2019s digital signature – and the document\u2019s properties show it was created on July 4 – 15 minutes after a different letter by Mr Buylla was published setting out the new process.<\/p>\n

Cowan has questioned officials on why the document was backdated.<\/p>\n

Greer told the Sunday Mail: \u201cI hope there is a simple explanation for this inconsistency in the date of the official\u2019s appointment, because it is hugely concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be full transparency here if the public are to have any confidence in this process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Scottish Government said it decided to recall the appeal as \u201cthe proposed development raises issues of national significance\u201d. It added: \u201cAs this is a live planning appeal it would not be appropriate to comment further.”<\/p>\n

Flamingo Land \u2018s lawyers have said complaints about the new process are \u201cwithout substance\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Scottish Government is facing questions over its conduct in the ongoing appeal over controversial plans to build…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[52802,748,4884,20829,712,11312,7854,8545,12550,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-313704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-balloch","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-loch-lomond","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-scottish-government","14":"tag-scottish-green-party","15":"tag-scottish-national-party","16":"tag-sunday-mail","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114963123175979049","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}