The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)  is now involved in a major pollution scandal in Scotland’s first National Park exposed by the Daily Record and to which the luxury Cameron House Hotel has now admitted.

The hotel has confessed that for the second year running it has resolved problems with heavy winter rain causing a sewage tank to overflow. The problem lay with broken pumps. The hotel then simply sprayed raw sewage onto the park but say that they did not decant it into the loch or into any of the burns.

Since the hotel then also admitted having done the same things last winter, meaning that the failing pumps that led them to take this highly insanitary actionlast year had n ot been repaired or replaced sice – producing a reperat performance this winter. Questions have to be asked about maintenance standards and programmes at such a top rated establishment.

The Daily record reported that the waste sprayed onto the park included sanitary items and condoms. The hotel has denied this, saying that they only discharged ‘top’ water onto the area near which golfers play.

After the Doly Record exposure, the hotel swiftly called in contractors to close down the operation. Stephen Carter, the Managing Director of the five-star resort, issued a public apology for spraying the waste into the landscape near the loch. SEPA representatives arrived to perform pollution tests on the loch and in the area concerned and to take statements from hotel staff.

The matter has already been raised at the Scottish Parliament. The Green Party’s Robin Harper said: ‘It is absolutely disgraceful that anyone in this day and age could believe that spraying raw sewage on to a public park like Loch Lomond could be acceptable behaviour. The priority now for all concerned, including the regulators, should be the protection of public health and the preservation of a prized local green space, and the first step must be to stop this disgusting and irresponsible practice immediately’.