To you who have already signed, thank you, and thank you most of all for the comments that many of you have left that show the true feelings of people who are dismayed at the very idea this land should be sold at all. As many of you have pointed out, once this land is sold, there is no going back. The land value will increase way beyond the pockets of anyone with a social and environmental objective, and will be in the hands of one company to do with as they see fit, barring future planning applications and it is not too hard to imagine that once they have destroyed the three sacred cows of trees, riverside access and the sandy bay, as well as the principles of free access, then there will be nothing to stop them building whatever they please as there will be no grounds for objection. This is the long view. But we have a longer view, as you have all shown. The proper long view is this: that we must look a generation ahead and see what they will see if we do not act now. That future generation will ask itself one question: why, in the name of all that's sane, did the previous generation not take this into total public ownership? Why did they permit one company to own so much for profit's sake? We will be the generation that sold our souls. Of course, the truth is, we the people won't have done that. The truth will be, as we will say in our defence, it was those and such as those. Then will come the response: But you could have fought them! You didn't! Right now, we are fighting, but we have to win and win beyond the immediate concern of stopping this sale right now. We have to put in place a cast iron guarantee to future generations, that we will act as guardians, and as careful local developers where that is required for the enhancement of Balloch, and for the careful and thoughtful organic renaissance the village itself does need to maintain an open, free, enjoyable village for its people and many affectionate visitors. There is a vision here. A great one. It is a vision of the access to the loch we did not permit to be throttled by one company for its own ends. It is a vision that extends beyond our own lifetimes even. It is a vision that is not short term and short sighted and short on common sense. Balloch is a living village, it is surrounded by little townships that need a future. a future where they have potential. Many in the area feel Balloch does not provide anything like the experience people would expect from a place at the foot of Loch Lomond. Where is the open harbour? Where are the traditional crafts, produce, history and heritage, provided by locals? Where is the feeling of a village working cohesively as one? The truth is, we are a population used to being told what is good for us. We are used to seeing things go pear shaped and downhill. We are used to feeling that we have no power. But that is changing. And this closed sale of 44 acres of our land that we have freely accessed all our lives as locals, (let no-one tell you we did not!) is changing us. More and more locals are now asking, why? Why did you not give us the option, fully explained, fully empowering us? Because the truth is, that was never given in open spirit as an option. Instead a top -down trickle-down crumbs-from-the-table approach was taken, because quite simply, we the people of Balloch and District, have been treated with what can only be called contempt and Scottish Enterprise were only concerned to balance THEIR books. But many now are speaking out, many are asking, why is this sale not opened up to us? Why are we not being PROPERLY consulted ~ for the consultation that has taken place prior was not about this sale, it was about what we felt Balloch needed, and no-one loudly said from that consultation that the sale of 44 acres for lodges and the sale of our woods, riverside and bay was an objective. Far from it. Yet we are told we have to accept that as the price of jobs to the area. The company that is involved in this have already purchased around 20 acres of land, and in that land they can build their hotel and lodges already. Without taking from our hands and future our riverbank, our free access, our bay and our woodlands. We can as a community own these and ensure their existence for all to use freely, whilst at the same time, through assistance from local and national bodies, if they are willing, improve the village, improve the riverbank, even if it is deemed worthy and required, use land, on a much less aggressive scale, for small crafts workshops, a local history heritage centre, and whatever else the community may feel Balloch NEEDS and for the benefit of Balloch in perpetuity. Then everyone has what they want, the company can get on with putting in planning applications for its hotel and lodges on its existing plots, which already have been used for hospitality, in the shape of the now ruined Woodbank Hotel. That is the sensible approach, and it prevents the wholesale swallowing up of Balloch's own natural corridor of wood and water. It prevents the future becoming one that is owned by the exigencies of a profit driven company seeking to maximise returns of former public lands on scale way beyond reasonable use. And the future generation will thank us, for they will inherit in their hands the lands we saved for them to pass on to their next generation. Again to the thousands who have seen the sense of a better vision, thank you, please, share this petition again, there are still many who do not know that we can stop this, that we can have a compromise, and crucially, we can pass these wonderful free places by our river and loch on for all time to the future people of Balloch and their visitors. The time is now, to empower the people of Balloch, to enable them, to permit them to have a real stake and a real say in their own future and the preservation of all that's best about their township and your loch. Stop the Sale and Begin the Future together.