Walkers may subsidise Cairngorm railway
March 3rd, 2010The public agency which now runs the Cairngorm funicular railway has proposed that parking charges be introduced at the car park at the funicular to help fund running costs. Approximately half the people using the car park actually go on the funicular, the others being walkers, climbers and skiers.
The Scottish Parliament is due to release a report into the funding and running of the Cairngorms funicular railway today. Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) had to step in when the railway floundered under massive financial problems and has spent £19.42m in total towards the cost of building and running it. The development agency plans to spend a further £4m over the next 3 or 4 years to maintain the funicular.
HIE said the investment would bring the site up to a standard that would attract a new operator from the private sector. It has also proposed introducing charges at a car park serving the railway. This would affect walkers using the Coire Cas car park as the starting point for a number of walks, as well as summer users of the funicular and skiers. HIE said that about 400,000 people used the car park last year. Half of those visitors used the funicular.
The agency took the railway and CairnGorm Mountain ski resort over in May 2008. It followed agreements reached with Bank of Scotland Corporate and CairnGorm Mountain Trust on large debts owed by CairnGorm Mountain Limited (CML).
Highland Council also agreed to write off a £1m loan to CML. The Scottish Parliament’s audit committee reviewed the financing of the funicular following an investigation by spending watchdog Audit Scotland.
Explosions of a different kind were heard on Cairngorm yesterday as controlled blasts were used to remove a massive build up of snow from above the ski slopes where it posed an avalanche risk.
One of the highest impacts on wildness reported to the Mountaineering Council of Scotland (MCofS) is continued construction of new hill tracks. Ugly and environmentally damaging hill tracks are built every year with no requirement that they are considered through the planning system. Beautiful wild areas, appreciated by Scotland’s residents and visitors, are being blighted by these uncontrolled eyesores. The national importance of this has finally come to the notice of the Scottish Parliament. Peter Peacock MSP – following discussions with MCofS Access and Conservation Officer Hebe Carus – raised the issue at Parliamentary Questions in response to Hebe’s highlighting the incremental reduction in wild areas. Government figures show that between 2002 and 2005, the area of Scotland unaffected by views of man-made developments fell from 42% to 32%.
The largest charity organisation dedicated to the protection of Scottish wildlife has called for starving deer to be culled across Scotland.