In reply to UKH News:
At the end of this report you make the comment that it is "an odd arrangement" given Scotland's access laws. Thinking back to the amount of resistance to this project that was generated throughout the 90s, it was a hard-wrought concession that the imposition of the funicular would not lead to an influx of people onto the summit plateau with the commensurate environmental impact.
The cynic may see SNH as complicit in the commercial agenda of the funicular company as it would be a whole new market of user if one could could get out at the summit and walk back down. Yes, in Scotland there is unfettered access rights to the high mountains, but it needs to be remembered that there are responsibilities. And let's be clear, no one is stopping you from walking up Cairngorm - it is an agreement between many stakeholders and participants with environmental sensitivty as its main driver that is stopping folk from taking an expensive, visually intrusive and deceivingly convenient option. I wonder if, given the current economic climate, the project would have received the same Scottish government funding that it did 15 years ago, and whether this is an agenda on the part of HIE to maximise a return on their multi-million pound bale-out of the funicular.
Some recent info here:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/newsandmediacentre/17364.aspx
Highland Council last week gave the green light to a scheme that allows walkers to access the summit of Cairn Gorm from the top station of the funicular, overturning an original condition under which the funicular was granted planning consent.
