NEW plans for a £40 million tourist development at the southern end of Loch Lomond have been lodged with planning chiefs, according to the company behind the proposals – though the details have yet to be made public.

Flamingo Land announced on Monday that it had submitted a revised ‘proposal of application notice’ (PAN) to the National Park Authority to develop the West Riverside and Woodbank House site it is calling Lomond Banks.

The PAN has yet to be confirmed by park officials as being valid – and therefore has yet to be published on the National Park’s website.

Flamingo Land has, however, announced there will be two rounds of public consultation on its new proposals, which should appear online in the next few days.

The first of those will take place on September 28, with the second to be held in November, though the exact date for the latter has still to be confirmed.

A previous plan to develop the two sites was withdrawn in September 2019 after park officials recommended its refusal – and after more than 50,000 public objections were registered against the development proposal.

Fiona Robertson of Streets-UK, who has been appointed by the developer as a “community engagement lead” during the consultation process over the next few months, said: “In many ways, it feels like coming home as I was part of the team who delivered the original Lomond Shores plans at the planning application stage.

“The rationale for Lomond Shores was to provide the already high number of visitors to Loch Lomond the opportunity to “stop, stay and spend” and the Balloch riverside site – which is now known as Lomond Banks –was always seen as the next evolution of the project.

“Unfortunately, back in the early 2000s, there was no business interest in taking the West Riverside part of the project forward.

“However now we have the Lomond Banks concept of eco-friendly holiday lodges, a hotel and microbrewery, which very much supports the original vision that Balloch should be the ‘great reception point’ for Loch Lomond.”

Fiona plans to hold meetings with interested groups this month ahead of the public consultation events – if you’re interested in a meeting, email community@lomondbanks.com.