Our Board & Committees
Board
The National Park Authority Board is made up of seventeen Board Members. Five members are elected by the community and twelve are appointed by Scottish Ministers, six of these following nomination by the Local Authorities.
Our Members are led by the Convener, and Depute Convener.
Our Board agree the overall direction of the Park Authority. They also oversee the work of the Chief Executive and National Park staff. Our Board meets in public at least three times a year and agendas and papers for these meetings are posted online before each meeting.
If you’d like to come along to one of our meetings, have a look at our guide to public meetings.
Meetings which are held at our Headquarters in Balloch are also livestreamed on our website for public accessibility. Links are posted on the webpage for the meeting approximately half an hour before the scheduled start of each meeting.
Committees
By law, we have two committees that are required to meet:
- Our Planning & Access Committee normally meets monthly to consider certain planning applications, enforcement actions, policy papers, legal agreements and access matters.
- And our Audit & Risk Committee meets up to four times a year to support the Accountable Officer (our CEO) in their responsibilities for issues of risk, control and governance and associated assurance through a process of constructive challenge.
We also have a Local Access Forum, that advises on duties and responsibilities under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and a Local Review Body, that meets as and when needed to consider planning appeals.
Agendas and papers for these meetings are posted online before each meeting. When these meetings take place at our Headquarters in Balloch, they will be streamed for members of the public to view live.
The Role of Board Members in Major Planning Applications, Quasi-judicial and Regulatory Decision Making
Members of the Board must ensure there is a proper and fair hearing of any application which comes before them for decision and therefore need to avoid any impression of bias in the whole decision-making process.
This means that Members need to avoid pre-judging or demonstrating bias (or be seen to pre-judge or demonstrate bias) or indicating/implying support for or opposition to an application prior to the appropriate meeting where the application will be considered.
As a result, Members are not able to discuss the merits of an application with the public, press or each other prior to the appropriate meeting.
Contacting the Board
Any Member of the Board can be contacted by emailing our central inbox for Board and Committee matters: committeeclerk@lochlomond-trossachs.org – correspondence addressed to individual Members will then be passed to them directly. You can also call 01389 722600.
Correspondence for the Convener of the Board (Heather Reid) can be sent to Convener@lochlomond-trossachs.org
Correspondence for the Chair of Planning and Access Committee (Claire Chapman) can be sent to ChairPAC@lochlomond-trossachs.org
Correspondence for the Chair of Audit and Risk Committee (Ronnie Erskine) can be sent to ChairARC@lochlomond-trossachs.org
Please note that Board Members will not be able to respond to direct correspondence on live planning matters. Members of the public can view and contribute to planning matters through the Planning Portal.