Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Tales from the National Parks

The national parks are Britain's most beautiful landscapes.

Rolling hills, wide lakes, panoramic views.

They are places to relax and inspire you.

In Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park,

there are plans to turn this beautiful, tranquil glen

into a large, noisy, industrial site.

It's one of the most controversial developments ever in Scotland.

It's a hugely industrial structure in the middle of a wild, wild landscape.

-Is that the highest point?

-Imagine it going out to where that flag is...

..will deface it for evermore!

Is it right to exploit this beautiful countryside

to help struggling remote communities?

The people of Tyndrum have been waiting for this opportunity

to bring some prosperity to the area -

please do not betray them.

What is it that makes you feel tearful?

I think it's the sheer anger.

I spent a year filming in Loch Lomond,

because I want to find out who this national park is really for.

I can suggest a place where they can push their ivory tower where the sun don't shine.

It's June 2010, and this is Tyndrum,

a tiny village of just 160 people,

at the northernmost point of the park.

Unlike many villages in the Loch Lomond National Park,

it's not a tourist destination.

The A82 from Glasgow to Fort William

dissects the village - people just pass through on their way elsewhere.

Long journeys are broken at the Green Welly services,

almost the only place to get a job in Tyndrum.

Many people are having to move away from the village to find work,

and when they do, they leave behind a close-knit community

centred around the village hall.

It's quite simple - it's this, it's this,

and then you release the hands and bring them back.

Villagers fear Tyndrum is slowly dying,

but there is something that might save it -

something very precious has been found in the surrounding hills -

gold.

Maybe now, people will be less likely

to simply pass through Tyndrum.

Some people pass through faster than others! Ha-ha!

John Riley has lived here for 30 years,

and used to run a hotel in Tyndrum.

Now, his village could become home

to the first gold mine in Scotland.

-You're the leader of the community council.

-Well, I'm the chairman.

And I was one of the founders of it, 20 years ago.

We imagine that the coming of the gold mine

will lead to a lot of projects

to enhance the village in various ways.

The tree of life will be fully laden with fruit,

if you want to put it that way.

John hopes the gold mine will make Tyndrum

a unique tourist destination.

What's that, sorry?

-It'll be across the road there.

-What will?

-The gold centre.

-So that would really put Tyndrum on the map.

-Well, that's what I see,

and build a state-of-the-art mining interpretation centre

which could attract tourists from all over the world,

just as the one in Ballarat in Australia does.

Look at all the traffic we get here.

We'd like a larger proportion to stop.

-Have you heard about the gold mine?

-Pardon me?

-The gold mine.

-Gold when?

-Gold mine.

-Gold mine - no.

I don't speak English, I speak French.

-I speak French.

-I speak French.

Visitors view Tyndrum rather like an airport departure lounge,

a place to refuel or have a toilet break.

They know nothing of the village's plight - or the prospect of gold.

Do you know about this gold mine they're going to build here?

-I don't know... I'm only visiting here.

-I see, OK, right.

Yeah, I don't know anything about it.

But the villagers are excited by the gold that has been found

in the hills nearby.

-And you're a fan of the gold mine?

-Very much a fan of the gold mine.

Yes, very much.

-It's not even been granted permission.

-It will do, definitely.

-You think so?

-Yes.

-Are you excited about the arrival of a gold mine?

-Yeah, very exciting.

It'll bring more tourists and hopefully jobs.

-Do you like whisky?

-Yes, of course I do.

Also like gold, and want the gold mine to go ahead! Ha-ha!

'There are even plans afoot to sell a whisky named after it -

'Tyndrum Gold.'

I suppose it's an example of how the gold mine would become

a bit of a tourist attraction?

Yes, of course it would. It would... The gold mine would be a disaster

to the community, if it doesn't go ahead.

The gold mine is also welcome news

to the few bed and breakfasts in Tyndrum.

Chris and Angela Slater have lived in other parts of the world,

but they've settled here.

-People come from...

-..all over the world, from South Africa...

-Scandinavia...

-From Scandinavia, yes.

We have Germans, Dutch, French, we have a few from Barcelona,

New Zealand, Hong Kong...

Falklands, we had Falklands the other day.

From Delhi, er...!

Chris and Angela believe the gold mine will bring extra visitors to the village,

which their business desperately needs.

I believe it should be allowed to proceed,

because it means prosperity for this area.

We do need prosperity.

If we don't have prosperity, it will be the equivalent

of the Highland clearances all over again.

And we must learn from the mistakes of the past.

'I think Chris and Angela see me as a potential customer.

'They want to show me the en suite room.'

You still want to be in the dark.

We can put a light on.

Is this the honeymoon suite?

Um...yes! Kind of...

-We don't make it a requirement.

-We... Yes.

It's a nice room, with a lot of light.

I like, I must say, I personally like a custard cream.

I agree with you, they're the favourite.

But you also like, the, um, what's the other one, without the icing?

-The, er...

-The jam biscuit? No, not the jam one...

-The gingernuts!

-I can't help it, I have a weakness for ginger biscuits.

-Yes!

-Do you like, um, jammy dodgers?

I don't know what a jammy dodger is, but I recall a Penguin biscuit.

HE SHOUTS TO THE SHEEP DOG

The land where the gold has been found

is called Cononish Glen, and it belongs to John Burton,

a farmer with a flock of 200 sheep.

Is there much money in sheep...sheep farming?

Er, it's certainly much better this year,

but the wool in itself is more or less worthless.

So, do you still like the farming,

or do you think you might give it up?

Well, I would like to keep going as long as I'm reasonably fit.

That's her.

That fleece, by the way, is possibly worth about 10p.

-Is that all?

-That's all.

-Did you grow up around these hills?

-Yes.

I was born in that old house over there.

-The very old one, in the distance?

-Yes, yes.

Just point out which bits that you...you own.

Er, right along this hilltop here, just behind it,

right up onto that high top, then right up onto the top...

That side of that one, facing over there,

and all of what you can see on this hill here,

plus all that's going back that way.

It's quite a lot.

Yeah, it's quite a lot. You cannot gather all of the sheep off it

in one day, that's for sure.

'The gold mine company has agreed to pay John a rent

'for mining on his land.

'It's something he and his wife Deirdre

'have been waiting a long time for.'

-What are you making?

-Well, I'm making some drop scones.

We call them pancakes, but I think you in England say drop scones.

Ah. Do you enjoy a...a drop scone?

Yes. Very good, lovely.

I've got a whole folder of newspaper cuttings - would you like to see it?

-Mmm, yes.

-Cuttings over the last 25 years.

Some of them are extremely good.

This is an article... my husband shares the front-page with Joan Collins.

That was 1985.

-Is that you?

-That's me.

I can see some of these articles portraying you as a man who's just struck it lucky.

Do you remember when you first found out there might be gold in these hills?

About as early as 1962, that there was spots of gold, flakes of gold

in the river, but we never, ever thought it would come to anything.

A geologist came to the house.

Yes, that would be in 1983, so that's why I'm saying 27 years.

There was a geologist came.

He says "I represent a firm that would be very interested

in drawing up an agreement with you." He didn't actually say what minerals he was looking for,

but it transpired very shortly after that it was gold they were after.

This early interest in John's land resulted in a gold mine

being approved by Stirling Council back in the mid '80s.

Work began digging a tunnel into the hillside.

But all that remains now is a nasty scar on the landscape,

because back then the price of gold dropped dramatically

and the mining company pulled out.

The footing's a bit rough, obviously broken rock,

and it might be muddy and wet, so watch where you're walking.

Now, with the price of gold at a record high, a new gold

company is on the scene, and its managing director is Chris Sangster.

-If you look above your head, you'll see what it's all about.

-Ah.

This particular part of the vein is running about 30 odd grammes a tonne, so that's quite rich.

So you need a tonne of rock to get one of those out, approximately.

Right.

That's a lot of rock.

-In terms of gold mining...

-That's normal, yes.

-That's high yield.

-That's high yield, yes.

Ten plus is considered very high grade.

What would... The first gold that comes from this mine,

what will it be turned into, do you think?

Money!

It's July, and Chris's company Scotgold,

which is actually from Australia,

has taken over a tiny office up at Tyndrum railway station.

His team have worked at some of the biggest gold mines in the world.

This is Cononish.

Cononish is situated here, and we're sitting at the moment over here,

-sort of about 4ks away from here.

-Right.

Each one of these effectively represents a potential prospect.

The red bits there and the purple bits there are the interesting bits,

so those are high grade outcrops or the gold-bearing structure.

It must be great when you actually find a large amount of it.

Well, I've worked in several gold terrains around the world,

primarily in Africa, and I firmly believe that the values that

we're getting here, they would stand up against most areas.

-Really?

-Oh, yes.

The gold mine should make lots of money for Scotgold,

and the villages of Tyndrum hope to benefit too.

But during its ten-year lifespan, the spoil from the mine will be

dumped on this beautiful glen, creating a huge tailings dam

five storeys high, with a capacity to hold 830,000 tonnes of waste.

It could for ever blight this remote corner of the National Park.

It's a hugely controversial matter, and outside of the village

lots of people and organisations are campaigning to stop the gold mine.

The decision whether to approve or reject it will be made

by the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authority.

Its headquarters is 40 miles away from Tyndrum in this £5 million

state-of-the-art, ecofriendly structure, built out of sustainable Douglas fir.

The decision notice went in May and we also sent a letter.

Its leader is chief executive Fiona Logan.

I genuinely see both sides of the argument.

I know that's not what you want to hear,

but I really do see both sides of the argument.

I mean, I worked for Greenpeace for years,

and I'm a huge environmentalist, conservationist, and I completely

understand the argument that is posed by the conservation lobby.

And I have a lot of empathy for it.

But I'm also a businesswoman

and I think Scotland's a bit stuck

and I think we absolutely need to get a little less precious.

Fiona has just given her senior management team

some psychometric testing to learn more about their leadership styles.

She's a yellowy-red.

In terms of when people are communicating with me,

it says what not to do.

"Talk with her using a low-key voice tone.

"Be vague or leave things open to interpretation.

"Leave her out of the picture."

SHE LAUGHS

I think it's wonderful.

"Make your lack of interest in her problems too obvious."

So basically, it's saying, cater to her ego and you're all good.

I'm blushing, but it's absolutely... A lot of that's so, so, so true.

Touching distance from Fiona's desk

is the head of planning, Gordon Watson.

Gordon constantly gets challenged by the amount of times

I interrupt him on any given day

and wishes there was an office door to close between me and him.

And when she's not here, her PA does exactly the same thing on her behalf.

What colour is Gordon?

Why don't you ask him?

I'm a kind of greeny-blue.

Greeny-blue?

Which I think means I'm a collaborator,

so I'm a diplomat.

I think I try to find consensus and take people with me.

Probably a very good disposition for a man who's in charge of planning applications.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

A very good man to have on a team with a bright yellow-red

like myself as well. He's the yin to my yang.

At seven years old, Loch Lomond is one of the youngest national parks.

Even though the gold mine was given permission by Stirling Council

in the 1980s, it needs to be approved all over again

by a national park planning team with much more stringent guidelines.

The gold mine application is open to public consultation

and that means people can object to it.

To many, the thought of a gold mine

in a beautiful glen is quite abhorrent.

One such organisation is a charity called the Friends of Loch Lomond.

This group campaigns for the preservation of the park.

But you're right. All that Loch Lomond side is recently planted

and seeded trees that are probably not a very...

Today, it's meeting to discuss the Scotgold application.

The difference you have with the local community and ourselves

and others like us is the short-term view and the long-term view.

We must take the very long-term view of any development of this nature.

Whereas the local people, quite understandably,

are looking at the short-term and what they can get out of it.

Ten years' employment and no guarantee the jobs will go to locals.

They would need some specialist mining engineers.

Yes, there would be some jobs for locals.

-Clearly, they would bring people from elsewhere.

-Yes.

It makes me think of one of the original points of ours

which was that it's a national park. For goodness sake!

It's a protected landscape and it's protected for a reason

because it is precious. We can't forget that.

Is there any danger that you're hankering after preserving

a vision of the British countryside which is perhaps no longer relevant?

No. So far as I'm concerned,

and I'm sure I speak for the rest of us, we are not.

What we're talking about is natural landscape

and this is something

that's not natural that's being planted on top...

and spoiling.

Does that answer your question?

Nearly all the organisations opposing the gold mine

are from outside of Tyndrum.

In the village itself, it seems everyone is for it.

It's more like...

That's a cap, isn't it? It's actually a hat.

We don't have...

-I'm afraid, I don't think we'd have one at this time of year.

-Very nice that.

But Mhairi, who has been working in the Green Welly for five years,

tells me there is a fly in the ointment.

I think there's only one member of the community

that is openly not happy about it.

Everyone else is delighted

and I think that's a good ratio, one to everyone else that's here.

I'm intrigued to meet this one rebellious villager who doesn't want the gold mine.

I track down Davey Hardy and find him washing his car

outside his home.

-It's a close-knit community. Do they know how you feel, the people here?

-Most people do.

Has that gone down well?

Well, in some quarters, I don't believe it has.

Perhaps I've been a wee bit overly sensitive,

but sometimes I feel as if I'm being pilloried for having my views.

But my views aren't just off the cuff. My views are informed views.

I've read things. I have read the proposal.

There are some things that I find quite questionable.

I don't think Scotgold has done its homework.

And I just feel that if you're against something,

in my experience, then...

..you're not so much shunned,

I would say that you're looked upon unfavourably.

-Really?

-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I can't speak on the behalf of everybody else, John Riley does that,

but for me, thinking independently, I cannot think of one thing

that the gold mine is going to give me,

apart from restrictions to the hills that I love.

That's the only thing that I can think of.

I just feel that too much has been given towards making money

rather than what it's going to cost in the long run.

Decades to come.

That's is how I feel about it.

Where there's gold, there'll always be a bit of a battle.

Yes. Where there's gold, there'll be greed.

Will the gold mine rejuvenate a poor, rural community?

Or will it devastate a beautiful, tranquil glen?

At the start of August, two weeks before a decision on the gold mine is reached,

the head of planning at the park authority, Gordon Watson,

must make his recommendation to the board.

Gordon can advise the authority's board members to either approve

or reject the application when they vote in a few days' time.

I've had to look at the impact

of primarily the tailings management facility

which is the large structure that holds all of the waste material.

You'll have a very regular, engineered shape in the landscape

and while there will be vegetation eventually covering it,

we don't think the restoration plan is going to do

what Scotgold are claiming, in terms of...

"You won't be able to see it on the landscape."

We feel that you very much will.

I have concluded that it really is contrary to the first national park aim

which is about conserving the natural heritage of the park.

And the economic benefits really don't outweigh that.

And that's the reason that I've come to a recommendation for refusal.

The park authority board doesn't need to follow

Gordon's recommendation when it votes on the gold mine,

but even so, his revelation will come as a terrible blow

to the people of Tyndrum.

I head back up to the village,

wondering how the locals will come to terms with this shocking news.

The leading campaigner for the gold mine

is Tyndrum's community council chairman, John Riley. He's completely livid.

I object very strongly to the objectors...

The media descend on his house.

Well, I think they're making too much of a minor environmental sort of problem.

The farmer John Burton

and some other villagers come over to discuss the disastrous news.

It's amazing when we looked in the Herald this morning,

we find, "Plans to reopen Scotland's only gold mine in a national park

"have been dealt a potentially fatal blow after its planning chiefs said they should be rejected.

Absolutely incredible.

And unbelievable. And short-sighted.

In any sensible country, this opportunity would be grabbed with both hands.

It better had be or else there's going to be World War III.

My God, they try to take this away from us...

They've got to be joking.

But I cannot see it passing at all with the amount of literature

that has come out from the planners against it

and this has all been fed to the people on the board

and I'm sure they'll swallow it.

But it's up to us at the meeting on Wednesday to make our feelings

very, very strongly felt in favour of the mine going ahead.

We don't live in a wilderness,

we live in small, rural communities, and we're fighting for survival.

And here we are being kicked in the teeth, in effect,

by a lot of environmental zealots,

many of them ivory tower, because they don't live here, a lot of them.

They've got ivory tower ideals

and I can suggest of a place where they can push their ivory tower

where the sun don't shine, basically.

-Nice seeing you, ladies.

-You too.

I hope Wednesday goes well.

Thank you, John. Thanks very much. Goodbye.

See you later.

It's the 18th of August and it's decision day for the gold mine.

22 park authority board members

are taken up to the site of the mine by Gordon Watson.

He wants them to imagine the tailings dam

in this beautiful landscape.

Obviously, the landscape section of the environmental statement

of my report refers to the character of this glen...

The board members are either elected councillors or government appointees.

Is that the highest point?

If you imagine that projecting out to where that flag is...

-That's the extent of the top surface.

-And then it drops from there...

-30 metres.

The embankment starts and it gradually drops down

to the orange flags at the very bottom.

The board members will need to be convinced the operation won't damage

or blemish this beautiful landscape.

The height of the tailings dam above that point

will be in the order of 30 metres.

For Scotgold and the villagers,

their fate is now in the hands of these people.

The tiny village hall is filling up. It seems the whole of Tyndrum has turned out.

The board members sit around the outside of the room.

Even though Gordon has recommended the board refuse the gold mine,

they can ignore his recommendation and vote in favour of it.

The green is the Ben Louie nature reserve.

The board listens as people give their case for or against the gold mine.

Such a development might be considered to be appropriate outside the National Park - great.

But surely cannot be considered within it, let alone in a prominent location

beside a busy West Highland tourist route.

We do need to strike a balance between the natural environment,

conservation and sustainable development.

Around £7-£10 million have been invested in the Cononish project,

in which there has been significant local component.

Anyone can register to speak, like this man who came over from Edinburgh.

My name is David Seagrave, perhaps known as Peg Leg Dave.

An amputee hill walker.

At 69, I'm still belting up mountains with this.

To vote a road to the mine will deface Cononish for evermore.

Dorothy Breckenbridge runs walking tours through the glen

and thinks the landscape should remain unspoilt.

This highly exceptional

and precious resource of wild land in a densely populated country deserves

a much higher level of protection than it has been given to date.

One of the board members questions her view.

The landscape has changed and is constantly changing.

Are these man-made things - for example the railway line at Glenogle with the beautiful valley -

are they not an asset to you and your tours,

do they not add a flavour to the work you do,

do they not explain that man actually lives in this landscape?

Yes, no, I would agree with you, but that is an historical perspective of things.

It's a bit like saying... You could argue that slavery was fine

300 years ago, but now it's not acceptable.

It's about where we as a society...

No, it's about where we as a society place our balance of how we are going to look after this land.

I'm surprised. Despite Gordon's recommendation, I'm getting a sense quite a few

of the board members are for the gold mine.

What's unique is such an application has a wide local support.

And that is something I have never experienced

in my 15 years on the council.

There's expectation in the room that the vote might still go against

Gordon Watson and the park authority.

Then it's time for John Riley and John Burton to speak.

I'm shaking a bit.

-You are doing fine, sir.

-OK.

It seems that the National Park Authority

and their environmental associates want a beautiful museum,

and we want a prosperous and fulfilling present and future.

It seems appropriate to suggest that

if these environmental Luddites had been influential

in the 19th century there would be no steam engines,

no railway lines and no viaducts.

Please don't let this incredible opportunity pass by this

remote, highly motivated community.

It would break our hearts.

John, OK, thank you.

After five long hours, John is the first to get applause.

Yes, could I please turn this thing off because I don't need it?

Mr Chairman, it is 27 years

since I became aware of the possibility of a gold mine at Cononish.

This morning, you have just visited the glen where

I have lived all of my 74 years, sheep farming.

39 hectares of poor acid land in an isolated part of the glen will,

when planted with native trees and natural grassland,

become an even better environment asset.

The people of Tyndrum area have been waiting for this great

opportunity to bring some prosperity to the area.

Please do not betray them. Thank you.

It's time to vote.

Happy to proceed? Can I ask for a vote, and please keep your hands in the air

if you are voting... until we get these properly counted.

It's very close.

OK. Could you tell us the decision?

It's the decision of the committee to use

the application for the reasons set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

The gold mine is rejected by just 12 votes to 10.

We want a motion that we want to come out of this national park.

People are left stunned.

A dream that began 27 years ago seems finally over.

Eddie, good to see you.

We'll see you. We did our best.

-Did that go the way you hoped it would go?

-Yeah, I'm delighted by the result we got today.

It was really a landmark case for what National Parks

are for in Scotland.

Obviously the board voted with the officer recommendation,

which is very much to take account of the conservation

having greater weight than the economic benefit.

Back at the Green Welly,

Mhairi and her friends are stunned by the decision.

It didn't cross my mind that somebody wouldn't want it.

So, yeah, it was a shock.

I just don't get these people who think

they can make decisions for us. It's just not fair. It's not fair.

-It can affect our lives.

-Yeah.

I think we all felt really, really let down.

Very, very let down by the whole process,

the whole National Park process has let us down.

What is it that makes you feel tearful?

I think it's sheer anger.

Just the anger of the way we've been treated.

The anger that National Park just don't care.

They care more for the colour of the plants on the hillside

than they do about people being able to live and work.

They are perfectly aware of the public support, it was mentioned in the meeting.

They just don't care...about the community, they don't care about us.

I was gutted.

The decision is particularly bad for Marie,

because her husband, Gavin, works for the gold mine.

Three weeks after the hearing, at the start of September, I meet up with him.

He's panning in a stream a few miles from Tyndrum,

as part of the relentless quest to find new gold seams in the area.

But because of the rejection, he now only has a few weeks left to work.

Can I ask you what is it you're doing there?

Just sifting the gravel to get the finer stuff at the bottom.

-That's what goes away for testing.

-Ah.

-Do you have any indication of whether there's any gold in there?

-Absolutely not.

We spoke to your wife, she was... Well, all the wives were very upset.

-It's quite a difficult time, I suppose.

-Uh-huh.

We found out my wife was pregnant a week before the National Park

decided to turn down the mine.

-Really?

-Uh-huh.

So if we hadn't been given this work just now

we would have moved away by now. Definitely.

-Really? When is the baby due?

-14th April.

Show that one because that one...

It was probably the scariest week, I would say.

You're terrified, you don't know what'll happen

because it's not just the two of us to worry about any more.

We'd probably not be here if you hadn't been kept on.

So you would have given in your job at the Green Welly?

I wouldn't have had a choice, cos Gavin wouldn't have had anything.

I don't think the National Park should have that power.

That was a shock to me, I didn't realise the power that they had.

They've got their jobs, their great salaries.

I don't think they care about the communities they're affecting. I believe that. I'm not being spiteful.

I completely understand and I do see that within rural Scotland

we need to be looking for every opportunity to get things moving

and to get people into work and give our youngsters the opportunity...

The chief executive of the park authority, Fiona Logan,

does a radio interview about the gold mine rejection.

Tyndrum's Community Council leader, John Riley,

listens to a recording of it.

And he's furious.

Look, the lady has got a job to do,

she's the chief executive officer of the National Park Authority.

She has to follow the decisions and policies of the National Park board.

I'm glad I don't have to do that, it would drive me insane.

The way they reacted at that hearing.

-I wouldn't trust them to run a chip shop.

-A chip shop?

I wouldn't trust them to run anything.

It seems that... Particularly that hearing, it made me extremely upset.

Saying that it was going to ruin the experience of West Highland Way walkers,

when the West Highland Way is at least three kilometres away.

It just shows to me that these people have never been there.

John Riley feels his community has been let down.

The community supports this gold mine...

He's angry that young people in the village

might now be forced to move away to find work.

And for someone sitting in ivory towers,

telling us what we can and can't do,

they're becoming very unpopular here.

So John Riley comes up with a radical solution to the problem.

Tyndrum should come out of the National Park.

After all, the gold mine had been given permission

long before the National Park even existed.

Throughout Tyndrum, other villagers appear to support John Riley.

It's crazy to turn down prosperity.

Ridiculous.

-Who's for the hash brown?

-Me.

At the Slaters' B&B, it's a busy breakfast run,

but the summer has been very slow.

It's like haute cuisine.

Oh, yes, we try and make it look nice and appetising.

-There we go.

-Lovely, thank you.

The loss of the gold mine will not help their business.

There's going to be many more letters

sent to the park in support of the reopening of the existing gold mine.

Scotgold's MD, Chris Sangster, has been keeping a low profile

in his office up at the railway station

and considering his position.

But after a few weeks, Scotgold release a press statement

announcing they are going to reapply for the gold mine

with a smaller tailings dam,

one that the park authority will find harder to refuse.

The re-application means, once again, Fiona and her team

must work with Chris to see if any solution is possible.

Let's look at an idea of what you might like to see.

How would you like to see it sitting in the landscape

and what shape and what size?

Visual impact is the main show-stopper for us.

If it was halved again, then...

That's essentially what we want you to get doing, something with...

In my head, I'm branding it already as a baby dam.

It seems strange to me that the gold mine might be back on the cards

after the painstaking process that led to its refusal.

But that is how the planning system works.

The latest news spreads fast through Tyndrum

and reaches the sewing club in the village hall.

Are you ladies all excited about the gold mine, the prospect of it?

-Oh, yes.

-It'd be good if it gets going.

Despite the unexpected turn of events with the mine re-application,

John Riley is continuing to demand Tyndrum

come out of the National Park.

It's creating a strain between the village

and the Park Authority, so, late in September, Fiona Logan suggests a meeting with John

to try and defuse the situation.

It gets off to a rocky start.

There's no point knocking spots off each other.

You've got a view, we obviously have a view.

What we want to do is move forward and be as constructive as we can about moving forward.

You know, the trouble is you're cutting me off.

You're saying you shouldn't be in a national park,

-and I'm saying...

-You're asking me what my opinion is and I'm finding,

I'm not very quick-witted these days.

John, I apologise for cutting you off.

-What I'm saying is it's the gold mine that's changed your opinion.

-No.

I can think of few ways in which the National Park has helped us.

I think in the seven short years we've been in place,

we've done a tremendous amount in your community, for your community.

I was a strong supporter of this National Park from the beginning,

but I did believe this equal balance

between social economic and environmental,

and it hasn't turned out to be so.

OK, the decision didn't go the way you wanted it to go

with the planning application, because we feel that the price was too high to pay, environmentally.

It's the big TMF,

it's 820,000 tonnes of slurry sitting a third of the way up on Munro.

It's just not appropriate.

We agree in protection of the environment.

We don't want to destroy our heritage, our whole heritage,

the wonderful scenery we live in, at any price.

Yes, you do, actually. It's right there in the valley.

From a very layman's point of view, can we get the stuff off the hill?

It moves quickly, it could be piped.

I asked precisely that question, could it be piped,

and the answer was yes, it could,

and that's talking about a little bit more investment,

a teeny bit more investment, about money,

the majority of which will go offshore to an Australian company,

and a little bit more money coming back into Scotland

to get it down off the mountain

and put it into somewhere that's not as sensitive a landscape

-because it's high up there.

-We just have to find an answer.

If we can get...

Listen, I hope you can see that we're approaching this

from a reasonable point of view.

I would like to appeal ongoing that we can drop the "Ivory towers,

"you don't know what you're talking about," lines

that we're getting, cos it's not making me feel warm towards anybody.

I think John's encounter with Fiona

has left him a little lost for words.

How can you expect to win against such an attractive lady?

I don't know...

The park authority is in a strangely paradoxical situation

with the gold mine.

Even though they rejected it,

that doesn't necessarily mean they don't want it.

All National Parks in the UK have a duty to help businesses

and rural economies grow.

But in a Scottish National Park,

even greater weight is given to this responsibility.

Have we embraced our socio-economic aim to the detriment of conservation,

or is the balance about right?

When I catch up with Fiona,

at a conference on the banks of Loch Lomond,

she and the authority's convener, Mike Cantlay,

explain the reasoning behind this apparent dramatic U-turn.

The hole in the wall of the hill is not the issue, it's the 820,000 tonnes of slurry.

So there is a way of us mining gold in that place,

without ruining the landscape impact.

But it's still going to have a lot of landscape impact.

Well, that's what we're looking at radical, though.

But what the community said was, all right, you've made your decision,

but now get back to work and go back to your four aims,

and see if you can find a solution that gets a balance.

And that's what we're working towards,

and if we're successful in that at the end of the day,

then that will be a real litmus test as to what National Parks

can and should do for Scotland.

It's still going to have a tailings dam, isn't it?

Well, we don't know.

This is what Scotgold need to go away and consider.

They know what it looks like up there,

they know that's the crux of the issue for us.

So how radical they're going to be, I don't know just now.

The park authority needs to try and help small communities like Tyndrum.

If Scotgold can reduce the mine's spoil,

and so make the tailings dam smaller,

the park authority will be more likely to approve it.

In October, Gordon Watson is invited back to the site of the mine,

to see plans for a new, much smaller tailings dam.

There, which would have been the toe of the original there...

The changes seem quite dramatic.

And now you're moving that up,

so you're seeing less of the dam from that viewpoint.

Certainly to me it looks better...

Well, certainly the top surface reduction is quite unexpected.

-That was before.

-And then that would reduce...

on the revised design. That's the top surface there.

-Made an impressive change...

-It has.

-..the contours that are given.

A few days later, I meet up with Gordon and Fiona, at a hunting lodge.

They've just received the revised plans from Scotgold.

But it's not what Gordon's hoping for.

So the top slice ones are just going slightly higher

-but you can see still a big surface area...

-Oh! That's... Yeah.

The version I was shown on site, it was a bigger difference.

It was something I thought we would maybe need to look at a bit more.

It's still... So blooming frustrated about this

because the conversations we've been having today have been...

They've seemed really, really willing to be radical.

And this isn't radical.

Over the next few weeks and months, negotiations continue

over the size of the mine's controversial tailings dam.

But progress is tremendously slow.

Throughout the year, the south of the park around Loch Lomond

gets a lot more visitors than the north where Tyndrum is.

Even in the winter, people still come here,

to view the scenery and enjoy the solitude.

-Have you caught anything?

-Oh, you scared me to death -

no, no, nothing yet, no.

It'll be great when they put some fish in here, it'll be a lot better.

-Do you enjoy the tranquillity?

-Love it. Get away from the missus for a bit, you know what I mean(?)

HE LAUGHS You know what I mean?

Are you going to go and give up and see your wife now?

Oh, aye, better had.

Getting on. She wants to go and watch Dickinson's Deal.

In January, back in the north of the park,

the villagers are frustrated by the lack of progress over the gold mine.

The farmer, John Burton, has already waited 27 years for the mine.

I think the park authority have to get their reasons fairly correct and fair.

Do you feel that they don't respect you?

I don't...

Well, obviously with the decision they made they DON'T respect us.

For Fiona Logan, the chief executive of the park authority,

it's about respecting the landscape as well as the community of Tyndrum.

Look at that. Look at that!

-What?

-That! It's just wonderful.

Sometimes the politics can get a bit on top of you,

and this just takes you right back to what it's really about, which is,

you know, us here, living within this,

sustainably - not destroying it, enjoying it,

and giving a bit back.

We're working really hard with the applicant at the moment,

and we obviously are very much trying to encourage them

to think about the environment.

And about the impact of this tailings management facility.

And really it's... Time will tell.

The park authority is holding out for a much smaller tailings dam.

We're really, really trying to be helpful with this one...

Yes. I'd not be arguing that point.

Rather than just sweep it under the carpet.

But a smaller tailings dam holds less spoil,

and that means a smaller mine, and so less income for Scotgold.

And that's the source of the tension.

I am less bothered about a quick restoration job than the RIGHT one.

I get the impression both sides

are trying to see how far they can push the other one.

I have to say that I disagree with you on that point.

In February, Scotgold's environmental consultant

Karen Dalgleish

fears the park authority don't want the mine at any cost.

Is it looking simply for reasons to refuse the application?

That's my concern here.

If this thing falls down because we can't agree on landscape matters,

-that's not for want of...

-Want of trying. Yeah.

Time passes - and then, in the spring...

Mhairi and Gavin welcome baby Emma into the world.

Oh, no, we don't want that... We don't want crying.

And at The Green Welly, there's also a new arrival.

There you go.

-What's that?

-Tyndrum Gold.

-Whisky.

-That really is cashing in.

Even before it's been granted permission.

A sense of optimism is returning to Tyndrum,

and I hear that negotiations are back on track.

-We'll get the go-ahead.

-Are you convinced?

-Yes.

A few weeks later, plans are finally unveiled in Tyndrum village hall

for a mine with a new, smaller tailings dam.

The intention is to reproduce,

as far as possible, what is there.

If this satisfies the environmental zealots, then that's good enough.

Are you both optimistic, or is one more optimistic than the other?

Oh, no, we've got to live as if it's going to happen.

But we can't spend as if it's going to happen. That's the problem.

BOTH CHUCKLE

There is a lot of optimism amongst the villagers here,

but I can't help thinking, "Haven't we been here before?"

I'm really looking forward to hearing the good news.

-Are you as optimistic as these two?

-Yes, I'm sure it'll be granted.

I don't think they have any option but to grant it.

-Did you think that the last time?

-Oh, yes, yes...

Six months later, at the end of October, a new hearing is called

to decide the fate of what will be Scotland's only gold mine.

Just like the first hearing over a year ago,

the Board members are taken up to the site of the mine workings.

You can get an appreciation that the final 339-level TMF

will be rising above the tree-belt there.

Two weeks ago, the Head of Planning at the Authority, Gordon Watson,

revealed his recommendation to the Board.

There will be trees around the development, but...

Last time, he recommended rejection.

But this time round, there's a change. Gordon wants the mine.

Looking at the benefits, the Caledonian pine being extended,

more tree-planting would need to go down in the area...

Once the mine's finished,

we're going to have a better glen than we started with.

Has it really changed that much from a year ago?

-The TMF is less than half the size.

-Is it?

It's better designed into the contours of the site.

The one before was a large straight-lines-engineered structure.

It couldn't be restored, it would never look natural,

over the long-term. Whereas what we have now

is something that'll look a lot more natural when it's restored.

We can't take responsibility...

Because of intense public interest,

the hearing has been moved to the slightly bigger village hall,

of neighbouring Crianlarich.

Once again, a now familiar process begins to unfold.

A year ago, the Board members followed Gordon's recommendation.

-But will they this time?

-We have problems here.

Houses are not selling,

one bed-and-breakfast has been on the market for three years.

Our local hotel is in receivership.

I want to live here, but the area is slowly dying.

The young are leaving in search of jobs.

Are you trying to create a wilderness

where people are not encouraged to live?

And in excess of 50 million into the National Economy in many forms

making a useful contribution to our national economic recovery.

This project has the potential

to pay for the operation of this National Park.

We hope the National Park Authority will approve this application

and enable this highly-motivated rural community...

I'm sorry... To achieve its full potential.

It's an opportunity to demonstrate that Scotland

and this National Park are truly open for business.

The Commonwealth Games are taking place in Scotland in 2014.

Wouldn't it be great if the gold and silver medals

contained Scottish gold or silver, mined at Cononish? Thank you.

APPLAUSE

Can I invite your views? Are there any counter-proposals?

(If there's no counter...)

I'm assuming then, if there are no counter-proposals,

that the Board is in support of the recommendation as it stands.

Can I ask you to give us a show of hands

to make quite clear your support for that proposal?

-David, can you confirm the count?

-I can confirm a count of 16.

-It's all present.

-I take it then,

that that recommendation is approved unanimously.

-Thank you very much indeed.

-APPLAUSE

-Did you expect to get emotional?

-Yes, I can't help but get emotional.

But I just...

The weight of the last year, you know, just...all disappeared.

How do you both feel?

We're delighted, but more relieved than anything, I think.

LAUGHTER

Just delighted. It's such a weight off our shoulders.

-Congratulations, Gavin.

-Excellent, about time!

Maybe I'll come and live here too one day!

-Are you two friends now, then?

-We've always been friends.

Friends with differences.

Fiona was a little bit upset with me when we met on the 3rd September.

-Frustrated!

-But I think we've got a better understanding now.

What do you like about Fiona?

I fancy redheads for one thing.

You're not supposed to say that! BOTH LAUGH

Best of luck, have a great future.

-Thank you.

-It'll be a golden future, I'm sure.

A great day for Scotland as well and the tourist industry.

-Yes, all right then. Take care.

-Thank you. Bye-bye.

When I first arrived in Tyndrum over a year ago,

it was a place people just passed through.

But the gold mine has given the villagers something very precious.

It's given them hope.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd