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Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017


Postby 1Magnus » Tue May 09, 2017 10:46 am

My email to the National Park, 7 May:

Dear National Park staff,
I visited Inveruglas car park yesterday, 6 May, to go hillwalking. I arrived at 7.30am.
The bins were overflowing with rubbish; the toilets were closed; the pay-and-display wouldn't take the new pound coins, and the little ticket that it eventually spat out was illegible.
For the £4 parking fee, please provide better value for money!
Best wishes, ...

Their reply, 9 May:

Dear ...,
Thank you for bringing these issues to our attention. We are aware that at peak times the rubbish collection infrastructure can be put under pressure. To this end the bins which you noted where installed this year doubling the capacity on site and providing recycling facilities as well. It is unfortunate that more education needs to be done with the users of the park in terms of how they deal with their waste when in such beautiful locations.
In terms of the Toilets these are operated by the Café which is not open until later in the day when the vast majority of patrons would be visiting. With the increasing cost of running these facilitates this is the only option open to the Café Operator.
As you will be aware the new pound coin has only come into circulation within the last month or two, as such it does take a little time for infrastructure to catch up to the new design and we hope to have a suitable solution from our providers shortly.
We are glad that you took the opportunity to visit the National Park and enjoy its scenery. Please do continue to visit and enjoy the public open space that it offers.
Kindest regards

So no problems then. And we users really need to be educated better.

Astonishing. Thank you Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park!
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby prog99 » Tue May 09, 2017 11:22 am

No I think they are right. The world is full of stupid people who won't take their rubbish home if there's no room for it. Given the part of the country it doesn't surprise me one bit and education will probably not help for the majority.
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby 1Magnus » Tue May 09, 2017 1:35 pm

prog99 wrote:No I think they are right. The world is full of stupid people who won't take their rubbish home if there's no room for it. Given the part of the country it doesn't surprise me one bit and education will probably not help for the majority.


£4 buys you the privilege of taking your rubbish home with you? :shock:

I'm just glad I'm nearly done with the Arrochar Alps.
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby Clach Liath » Tue May 09, 2017 1:57 pm

1Magnus wrote:
£4 buys you the privilege of taking your rubbish home with you? :shock:


Yes, the response seems to be pretty lacking in responsibility. It is all someone else's fault.

1. the rubbish - it is not all about "capacity" or education. It is also about when and how often bins are emptied. Similar issues arise elsewhere where LLTNPA are responsible for ensuring rubbish/litter collection.

2. the toilets - LLTNPA have chosen to "outsource" a facility that comprises a cafe and toilets. Presumably they make some money out of this in the form of rent. LLTNPA could have required the cafe operator to keep the toilets open 24hrs. Yes, that would have come at a cost and no doubt the rent received would have reflected that cost. So LLTNPA appear to have chosen to put receipt of revenue over availability of public facilities.

3. the new pound coin - the response is laughable. Given it is from a public body, it is also appalling. It is as if the introduction of the new £1 coin was sprung upon LLTNPA without warning.

4. legibility of the ticket - not dealt with in the response. But presumably this would not have been LLTNPA's fault either. I wonder whose it would have been?
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby Gythral » Tue May 09, 2017 1:58 pm

The only issue I have with them is that it has been known for some time that a new pound coin would be issued & samples had been available to test things like parking meters,
that should have allowed them to be ready, but I guess that they still wont be ready in 5 months time when the old coin is no longer legal tender!
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby Sunset tripper » Tue May 09, 2017 2:05 pm

prog99 wrote:No I think they are right. The world is full of stupid people who won't take their rubbish home if there's no room for it. Given the part of the country it doesn't surprise me one bit and education will probably not help for the majority.

I'm not sure what you mean about "the part of the country" but these problems are possible anywhere there are big urban areas close by and maybe the NP should realise that and deal with it until a way is found to deal with the offenders.
As for the extortionate parking charges that is a disease from the south (blatant greed) and is slowly but constantly moving northwards. :(
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby Giant Stoneater » Tue May 09, 2017 2:10 pm

1Magnus wrote:
prog99 wrote:No I think they are right. The world is full of stupid people who won't take their rubbish home if there's no room for it. Given the part of the country it doesn't surprise me one bit and education will probably not help for the majority.


£4 buys you the privilege of taking your rubbish home with you? :shock:

I'm just glad I'm nearly done with the Arrochar Alps.


Whats wrong with a leave no trace,you brought it now take it home,easy.
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby SecretSquirrel » Tue May 09, 2017 2:31 pm

Giant Stoneater wrote:
1Magnus wrote:
prog99 wrote:No I think they are right. The world is full of stupid people who won't take their rubbish home if there's no room for it. Given the part of the country it doesn't surprise me one bit and education will probably not help for the majority.


£4 buys you the privilege of taking your rubbish home with you? :shock:

I'm just glad I'm nearly done with the Arrochar Alps.


Whats wrong with a leave no trace,you brought it now take it home,easy.


The rubbish or the £4? :lol: :D

I suppose it comes down to if you consider the £4 purely a parking charge or whether it is implied services are also included. In my opinion its for the parking, which has a side benefit of funding the services provided.
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby denfinella » Tue May 09, 2017 3:13 pm

Poor from the National Park. The car park was free until recently - £4 is quite expensive for pay and display car parks in the Highlands. For that money I'd be expecting toilets at the very least. I know the money gets spent on something somewhere else in the park and I've little objection to paying a few pounds for parking, but it's nice at least to get some sort of facilities in return, like toilets and bins with space in them!

And if the bins were full in May, I hate to think how much they'll overflow come the summer holidays...
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby Clach Liath » Wed May 10, 2017 10:42 pm

denfinella wrote:Poor from the National Park. The car park was free until recently - £4 is quite expensive for pay and display car parks in the Highlands. For that money I'd be expecting toilets at the very least. I know the money gets spent on something somewhere else in the park and I've little objection to paying a few pounds for parking, but it's nice at least to get some sort of facilities in return, like toilets and bins with space in them!

And if the bins were full in May, I hate to think how much they'll overflow come the summer holidays...


I agree.

SecretSquirrel wrote:
I suppose it comes down to if you consider the £4 purely a parking charge or whether it is implied services are also included. In my opinion its for the parking, which has a side benefit of funding the services provided.


Yes, except that LLTNPA states that its vision is "To deliver a high quality, authentic experience for visitors with any
opportunities to appreciate and enjoy the natural and cultural heritage within an internationally renowned landscape that compares to the best on offer around the world."

Whilst there may not be a direct link between car parking charges (which I do not necessarily think are unreasonable in principle) and litter collection/toilet facilities, there is a clear drive by LLTNPA to exploit commercial opportunities (as is further evidenced by the charging for camping/campervan/caravan permits and was explicitly set out in its Commercial Strategy adopted in 2013). That being so, LLTNPA should be delivering on the vision. The Inveruglas experience of the OP brings that into question - at least in that location.
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Re: Inveruglas car park - conditions May 2017

Postby redrook » Sat Feb 09, 2019 2:20 am

Sunset tripper wrote:I'm not sure what you mean about "the part of the country" but these problems are possible anywhere there are big urban areas close by and maybe the NP should realise that and deal with it until a way is found to deal with the offenders.
As for the extortionate parking charges that is a disease from the south (blatant greed) and is slowly but constantly moving northwards. :(


That's exactly what he means, that part of the country is easily and frequently accessed by people from Glasgow (an urban area).
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