Lomond park board member forced to resign over gold shares

from The National, 14 September 2015

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park has been branded an “embarrassment to Scotland” after one of its leading members was forced to resign from the park board for failing to declare shares in a £200 million gold mining company.

Owen McKee, who bought shares for £12,000 in the Australian company Scotgold after it was given permission to dig for gold at Cononish near Tyndrum in the park, has triggered a by-election next month by standing down as an elected member of the board. He had previously sold his shares and resigned as vice-convener and chair of the planning committee, but remained a member of the board.

Our sister paper the Sunday Herald revealed in August that McKee breached the park’s code of conduct by failing to declare his shareholding at 15 meetings over more than two years. It has emerged that two days after the story appeared, he wrote a letter resigning from the park board “in the light of recent media coverage”.

Dave Morris, the former director of Ramblers Scotland, described McKee’s resignation as “inevitable” after the “cover-up” of his mistakes was exposed. “It is unlikely to be the last resignation as the board's reputation continues to spiral downwards,” he claimed.

“Our national parks were supposed to demonstrate best practice, but instead in Loch Lomond we have never-ending lessons in leadership failure. It is an embarrassment to Scotland.”

McKee accepted that he had made a “serious misjudgement” that reflected “considerable naivety on my part”. He should have recognised that his purchase of the shares was “totally inappropriate”, he said.

“I am most distressed that my own personal error of judgement has attracted completely undeserved criticism of the national park authority,” he wrote. “It is therefore with deep regret that I have decided to stand down.”

His resignation was accepted by the park convener, Linda McKay. Failing to declare the Scotgold shares “was a serious breach of our code of conduct,” she said.

She told him: “I was glad that you recognised this, at the time, by stepping down from your board positions and selling your shares despite facing financial losses as a result. In the light of the media attention your actions have attracted, I understand why you now feel the need to take the further step of resigning from the board.”

The mountaineering campaigner, Nick Kempe, has lodged two complaints to Bill Thomson, the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland. “The government needs to sort out the governance of this national park where the personal interests of board members comes before the public interest,” he said.

The park authority pointed out that its critics were opposed to the park's proposed camping ban, and accused them of ignoring its success in promoting outdoor recreation. “This continuing barrage of criticism of the park authority board by Messrs Morris and Kempe appears to be connected to their fundamental personal objections to our proposals to protect the park’s unique environment and dramatically improve camping facilities," said a park spokeswoman.

"They had their say during a comprehensive consultation which attracted a range of views, including significant support from the visitors, communities and businesses affected by widespread irresponsible camping," she added. “It is worth remembering that Owen McKee was one individual on a board of 17 and he has acknowledged his error of judgement by resigning.”

Read an earlier story about Owen McKee here.

Comments

[Jeannette Ellwood - Spokespeson - Carrick Residents Group]

With a site hearing and second planning committee meeting on Monday for the controversial development at Carrick Castle we are waiting to see whether once again whether it is money or the park's community and environment that are more important to The Park. With the Arrochar torpedo site we have already seen a case where the fundamentals of a business proposal were not given due attention, this time even a lay person can examine the submitted development plan and see the basic problem, while the supporting bio-diversity proposal does not stand up to basic bio-diversity arguments.

So far the planning office have dismissed these points raised by the Community, our Community Council objection and the objections of our MSP. A formal complaint has been issued by the Community Group to Gordon Watson, CEO of the Park. No response to date, so we will see whether anything anything has improved on Monday.

Carrick Castle Residents Group

[David Long, Carrick Castle.Argyll]

It appears to me that Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park is only interested in commercial ventures from which they can profit. Objecting to any such scheme, even in numbers seems to be totally ignored and the outsider always seems to win. I though the reason for National Parks existence was to look after the natural beauty of the terrain it has been put in place to protect, not a license to build without consideration, deface and scar the countryside and put in danger or kill the natural flora and fauna that is indigenous to specific areas.
Surely it should be for the people who live in the parks who should be making the decisions as it is they who are most affected.
David Long residen of Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park

[Peter J G Jack - Chairman, Loch Lomond Association]

The Loch Lomond Association (LLA) is a representative elected community group of 36 years standing. It defends and supports all kinds of outdoor recreation and water-based sporting activities on and around the Loch, not only camping freedoms enjoyed by our membership. The LLA also refutes the Park (NPA)spindoctor's untrue comments in the article which are pathetic in the light of the wall of wide public opposition submitted both to the consultation itself, and to the Scottish Ministers later, at the laughably manipulative way the public consultation was misinterpreted . The sad truth is the NPA's grand plans for the Park centre on brutal uncaring commercialism, and wringing NPA income from all forms of past cultural public freedoms. It is no wonder the Park Management is almost unanimously locally despised, except by their nimbyist coterie of business pals who feed at the same troughs of self-interest. Keep at your tasks of long-overdue Park exposure Messrs Kempe and Morris. The silent public majority who love the freedoms conferred by the Land Reform Act 2003 and SOAC, fully support and admire your attempts to bring some proper regulatory discipline to this out-of-control largely-unelected quango. They listen to no-one, are a law unto themselves, and their own small supporting cabal. As may be read above, they thrive on self-delusion, and on believing their own nonsensical propoganda.

[Helen Todd]

The criticisms the park has received over the proposed camping ban cannot be categorised as just being from a couple of individuals with concerns. Considered objections were voiced by national recreation bodies including sportscotland, the Scottish Sports Association, Scottish Canoe Association, Royal Yachting Association, Ramblers Scotland and the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, who all raised valid concerns as to the appropriateness and effectiveness of any camping byelaws.

The proposed byelaws are now awaiting a decision by the Scottish Ministers.