Troubled waters

IT'S 3.30pm on a sunny Saturday in May, and all kinds of boats are out and about on Loch Lomond. From a vantage point near the Loch Lomond Shores retail development at the south end of the loch, it's possible to see a dozen or so large powerboats out in deep water, none of them in much of a hurry to go anywhere.

Meanwhile, in the shallow, sheltered bay beside Drumkinnon Tower, a family consisting of mum, dad and small son cruise around in a Canadian canoe. The grown-ups are doing the paddling, although it looks as if junior would like a shot too.

Then, from a small beach nearby, a jet-skier powers out to a spot about 50m offshore and starts noisily driving round and round in circles before finally disappearing into the distance.

Graeme Hawick is the co-director of Can You Experience Loch Lomond, the company that rents out canoes like the one the young family here are using. He says he has had run-ins with jetskiers in the past: "They do cause problems every now and again. We get a lot of complaints about noise, and once we had a guy on a ski who steered straight towards a canoe, which panicked the people on board. But we speak to them nicely when they buzz people, and quite often they will apologise."

For the past 12 months, the issue of jet-skis and speedboats - and, more specifically, the speeds at which they should be allowed to travel on the loch - has split the local community. Utter the words "speed" and "limit" to anyone who lives on or near Loch Lomond and they will more than likely declare their allegiance to one of two camps: the pro-speed lobby, who think speedboat owners should be allowed to operate within existing speed restrictions; or the anti-speed lobby, who argue that tighter controls should be introduced. The debate was sparked in July 2005, when the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park Authority set out proposals for changes to the existing bylaws governing recreational water use on Loch Lomond. Their stated aims were "to improve safety and keep the existing variety of activity on the loch, while allowing for quiet enjoyment, encouraging non-motorised sport that is in decline and safeguarding important conservation features, particularly around the islands and shores". These initial proposals ranged from making it compulsory to wear lifejackets to setting the minimum age for being in charge of powered craft at 16, but the controversial one - the one that really set feathers flying - was the suggestion that the area of the loch subject to an 11kph (7mph) speed restriction should be significantly enlarged.

This outraged speedboat and jet-ski owners, who formed an organisation called Fairplay Loch Lomond and petitioned the Scottish Executive not to alter the existing bylaws. These already ban powerboat users from travelling at more than 11kph within 150m of the banks in most places, and allow for larger go-slow zones in such environmentally sensitive areas as the National Nature Reserve around Endrick Mouth. Any increase to the existing restrictions was unnecessary, they argued, would make travel around the loch impractical, and have a negative impact on local business.

However, the conservation group Friends of Loch Lomond welcomed the proposals. In addition to the mooted restrictions, they also called for the overall speed limit on the loch to be cut from 90kph (56mph) to 60kph (37mph).

In February this year, after a period of consultation, the Park Authority submitted a revised set of bylaws to the Executive, with a 12-week period during which any objections could be lodged. That period ended on Monday. Now Rhona Brankin, the deputy environment and rural development minister, has the thankless task of deciding whether or not they should become law.

The revised proposals call for increasing the area of loch under restrictions by another 8 per cent, mainly around the archipelago in the loch's centre (see map right), bringing the overall go-slow areas to 30 per cent of the loch. This is considerably less than was originally suggested, but it would effectively create a go-slow buffer between the north and south ends of the loch. It would also prevent waterskiers practising their sport in the lee of the islands, forcing them into choppier, more dangerous water.

Not surprisingly, Fairplay Loch Lomond remain opposed to any change in the status quo, while Friends of Loch Lomond are broadly in favour, although they still want to see the overall speed limit cut to 60kph and are also pushing for an outright ban on jet-skis. Bob Elliot, the senior operations manager for the Park Authority, believes the revised proposals offer a good compromise.

"We're not going to stop motorised access," he says, "all we're doing is saying you've got to slow down in certain places."

Although they claim that speedboats do cause environmental damage, Friends of Loch Lomond don't base their support for the Authority's plans on ecological considerations, but on the twin pillars of safety and noise.

In Jenners' coffee shop at Loch Lomond Shores, George Boyd, the group's outgoing chairman, and his successor, Rowena Ferguson, lay out their organisation's point of view. "The Friends have no opposition to commercial use of the loch as long as it's tolerant of other users," says Boyd, "but we say speed and noise are intolerant of other users. On a holiday weekend, the jet-skis out here are almost intolerable. It's upsetting residents, and it's upsetting people who come to use the loch in other ways.

"We have long maintained that speed is potentially dangerous. I have been on speedboats at high speeds and I do understand the thrill of it. All I'm saying is, it doesn't belong here."

Boyd also claims that the new speed restrictions "will not affect any business whatsoever". However, Paul Dzierzeck, who runs a speedboat company called Loch Lomond Leisure - out of Luss, on the loch's western shore - begs to differ.

Dzierzeck offers a range of tours and charters, but the most popular, he says, are the 15 minute tours, which give customers a quick blast of adren- aline for just £5 a head. If the Park Authority's proposals become law, these taster tours - which often result in customers returning to book longer trips - will no longer be viable.

"If the new restrictions come into force, it will take between ten and 15 minutes to get out of the restricted zone", he says, "so people paying for a 15-minute speedboat trip are going to be spending more than 10 minutes going at 7mph. I consider myself to be quite a good salesman, but even I can't sell a speedboat trip at 7mph."

Dzierzeck claims that the proposed restrictions will also prevent him running various tried-and-tested tours of the islands, as they will simply take too long. Could he move to another location?

"Luss is probably the only point where there's both access and a sufficient number of visitors to sustain the business", he says, "and if it's not possible to find an alternative site to operate from then the business will have to close."

Time to pay a visit to Kevin Lilburn, the man behind the Fairplay Loch Lomond campaign, who lives in an attractive waterfront house near Rowardennan on a secluded part of the loch's east shore.

From his dining room window, which affords a grandstand view of the islands, the loch seems practically deserted. We only spot a couple of boats in more than an hour.

"We're against the new plan because there's no evidence to suggest that it's necessary", he says. "Even if you accept the problems that are said to exist do exist, there's no evidence to say that these new proposals are going to solve them.

"We have existing bylaws, which have speed restrictions on them, but they were never properly enforced until this year. They have police out on the ranger boats this year so they actually have a bit of bite about them, but by the park's own admission, up until now they haven't had the resources to actually enforce the existing bylaws."

"The whole process this year was supposed to be preceded by a review of the existing bylaws", he continues. "Our argument is: how can you assess existing laws for their effectiveness if you haven't been enforcing them?"

A former member of Friends of Loch Lomond, Lilburn says he would stop using his speedboat "in an instant" if someone was able to convince him that he was doing serious environmental damage by doing so. He argues that winter storms create much bigger waves - and therefore more erosion - than speedboat wakes and, anyway, most people use their boats in the summer, when water levels are too low for erosion to be a factor. Yes, he says, speedboats do release some pollutants in to the water, but they don't damage the water quality in the loch as much as the toxic runoff from the busy A82 that hugs its western shore. And besides, he adds, Scottish Water still draw water from the Loch and rate its quality as "excellent".

Perhaps the last word on the subject should go to Jim MacDonald, the recently retired chairman of the Loch Lomond Association - an organisation made up of recreational water users from both sides of the debate. Because of the nature of his organisation, MacDonald has found himself caught in the middle of the two warring factions and has suffered "a lot of abuse" as a result. Nevertheless, he maintains that a compromise is the best solution.

"We have tried to take a sensible middle view of this", he says. "There's no need for a 90kph speed on Loch Lomond, no need for it at all. Who in their right mind should have, on an inland waterway, a vessel capable of exceeding the speed of a Royal Navy frigate? But we do feel that there is plenty of room in the loch for everyone, if it's used with consideration."