The number and variety of proposed developments in the Loch Lomond area in 1972 led to the setting up of the Loch Lomond Technical Group, comprising representatives of the County Planning Departments of Dunbartonshire and Stirlingshire and the Countryside commission for Scotland. The preliminary work of the Technical Group resulted in the First Interim Report, 'A Management Plan for the Conservation and Controlled Development of Loch Lomond', in April 1973 and a decision to carry out surveys of the recreation use of the area. It was intended that the surveys would supplement existing information and be a step towards the production of a management plan for the area.
Some aspects of the work were undertaken by the local planning authorities, including land utilisation and analysis of development control, and some were commissioned by the Countryside Commission for Scotland - a study of the vulnerability and damage of lochside recreation sites by Dr Joy Tivy of the University of Glasgow (Tivy, 1974), and this report on the recreation use of the area by the Planning Research Unit, Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning, University of Edinburgh.
The primary objects of this survey were to amplify present information on recreation resources and facilities; and to study the different kinds of visitor and their patterns of activity in order to indicate the extent to which existing resources are used, the adequacy of various sites for visitor requirements and the existing conflicts between recreation and other land uses. Surveys were to provide data on the summer patterns of recreation land use including daily and weekly variations in vehicle and pedestrian movements, camping and caravanning, parking and overnight stopping. The study area was defined in the Loch Lomond Technical Group's First Interim Report (Figures 1.1 and 1.2)
The recreation survey was organised by Rosalind Brown of the Planning Research Unit under its Director, Richard Bigwood, and carried out by her, by Vida Chapman of the Countryside Commission for Scotland and by David Gordon of the Planning Research Unit, with additional help from staff of the counties and Commission. Vida Chapman had prime responsibility for all survey work involving questionnaires or boating recreation, and for writing chapters 5 and 9. Rosalind Brown had prime responsibility for all other aspects of the work.
Our surveys were coordinated with those of Dr Joy Tivy of Glasgow University who gave us valued stimulus and encouragement. Michael Anderson of the Department of Sociology, Edinburgh University, gave advice on the design of the questionnaire used on recreation sites. The staff of the Edinburgh Regional Computing Centre, particularly William Watson and William Aitken, processed much of the data and produced tabulations used in this report.
The chapters of the following report can be divided into three groups. Chapter 2 describes and assesses the data sources and survey methods. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 examine particular aspects of recreation relating to the whole study area - the general patterns of traffic movement which set Loch Lomond in its context, the provision and use of accommodation, and recreation activities in which there was an emphasis on organised activities. Chapters 6, 7, 8 and 9 look at each of the main spatial divisions of the area - the west, the east, the south and the loch itself. Copies of 4 questionnaires used are attached in Appendix 1. appendix 2 analyses questionnaire replies on environmental damage to loch shore recreation sites and is complementary to Dr Tivy's report. Not all the data analysed can be incorporated in this report and so copies of tabulations have been lodged for reference with the Countryside Commission for Scotland, and the County Planning Departments of Stirling and Dunbarton.
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