Cononish River
The recommendation will be considered by a full meeting of the National Park Authority Board at Tyndrum on 18 August. This will follow a site visit and a hearing where the applicant, supporters and objectors will have their views heard before the Board make a final decision.
Gordon Watson, Director of Planning and Rural Development for the National Park outlined his recommended reasons for refusal. They include:
Concerns over significant long term landscape, visual and recreation impacts;
The uncertainty of the predicted economic benefits due to fluctuating gold prices;
The proposal goes against the aims of the National Park designation. The National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 states that where there is conflict between the first conservation aim and the other three aims, it must give greater weight to conservation;
The impacts are considered to be significant both during the proposed 10 year life of the mine and for the long term after restoration.
The proposal involves boring ore to extract the gold and silver and involves associated surface workings including a large processing building and waste storage facility known as Tailings Management Facility (TMF). The extent of the surface operations is approximately 39 hectares. The large processing/storage building would measure 100m long and 14m in height. The TMF would occupy an area of approximately 9 hectares.
Although the National Park is recommending refusal the final decision on the planning permission for the gold mining operations will be made by the members of the Park Board after full consideration of the objections, statements in favour of the development and a site visit in addition to the planning officer’s report.