In development and planning, precedence is everything. With the magic word precedence, you can bowl over a whole raft of objections by saying, rather childishly, "Well he did it so can I!" It's a whinge you hear often, and too often. This childish, immature and short sighted element of planning often leads to a situation where decades later, people look at one photo, then another and exclaim "Oh I wish we'd stopped it at that point!" But it's too late, the damage is done. And the damage and despoliation continues until there is nothing left to spoil. If you want to see urban sprawl you can find no place that illustrates it better than the Vale of Leven. Everywhere houses and gated estates have went up, to the extent it is now largely a singularly unattractive place compared to what it was in the 1700s when its beauty was reckoned to be incomparable. So too was Balloch at one time reckoned incomparable, and rather sacredly so. Writers of the early 20th Century remarked that whilst the Vale of Leven could now be considered a veritable city, Balloch had thankfully not lost its charm nor grown much farther than its delightful main street and neighbouring fishing and mill touns. Fast forward and an explosion of housebuilding has turned Balloch into a very large sprawl indeed. Thankfully though, the Balloch Park, the river and the wooded riverside have meant that the sprawl is largely un-noticed. That is until you view Balloch from the south west, as many visitors do now. And the effect of the 1990s and Lomond Shores is staggering. No-one can claim it has enhanced Balloch. Indeed Lomond Shores has drawn much of Balloch's trade and activity away, without necessarily adding to the overall charm. In fact, much of it is car parks. Therefore, this additional expansion of the Lomond Shores project (which is what this is PLUS !) is now a step too far on top of a step too far. If you look at the photo on this page, you will see what I mean. 44 acres is no small pocket of land, and in Balloch's case it is gigantic. But what will increasing the activity here do? The plans are for lodges, all in all over 100. That is a significant number. Lodges sounds prettier than holiday homes. But that is what they are. Over 100 holiday homes, in the woods largely AND along the riverbank - with gardens. Therefore, the woods must needs Be rather thinned out. And once you have put permanent homes and gardens down, no matter what form that takes, you have altered the use of the land dramatically. You have set a precedent. This is no longer sacred land, you can make these permanent homes. In Yorkshire where Flamingoland currently operates, it regularly sells off holiday homes to boost its current account. So within a very short time indeed, the precedents this creates will be so destructive, the entire character of this major part of Loch Lomond will be altered for all time. On top of this they wish to build a large hotel and swimming complex, that will be as high as Drumkinnon tower (a monstrosity we are now beginning to regret very much indeed already) and will dominate all of the remaining shred of Drumkinnon Bay that survives next to the Maid of the Loch's steam winch cradle. This project is indeed as Scottish Enterprise billed it (the above brochure was deliberately aimed at commercial markets - NOT communities) - a rare commercial opportunity. An opportunity to own half of a village, to build houses disguised as employment opportunities and to build a giant hotel and own the finest view of Loch Lomond. And make one gigantic long term investment profit so huge, it is eye watering. This is why we say this sale has to stop. It is a dangerous precedent on top of other destructive commercial precedents and can only lead to other parts of the loch saying "Well if he can do it, so can I!"