by Gigha » Thu May 20, 2021 11:07 am
I cycled up to the Hopes reservoir last week, there were no cars in the new car park and no sign of any walkers on the track up to the reservoir. At this time of year would normally be dozens of walkers in this area, all very depressing.
Most people in the past used to park in front of the water treatment plant filter beds, that area is now plastered with "No Parking Scottish Water vehicles only" signs. The estate have also been moving fences to limit verge parking, and where that was not possible they have installed posts and placed boulders to make verge parking almost impossible.
I have no doubt that there were many weekends last year, when there were hundreds of people trying to park up there, causing chaos in the process. The same though could be said of just about every rural and coastal car park in the county if not the whole country.
While the estate have kept within the letter of the law, I personally think their actions are deplorable and certainly not within the spirit of the Land Reform Scotland Act. They will probably be feeling quite smug with themselves that they have effectively stopped people from easily accessing their estate. It is certainly not a revenue generating scheme as they only make 12 car passes available a month, it pains me to say this, but would have been better if they had put a pay and display system in place.
Short of mass drive / walk ins to disrupt the estate, I am not certain there is much that can be done to overcome this.