Keep Balmaha Beautiful

KEEPING BALMAHA BEAUTIFUL

The Oak Tree Inn is launching a major initiative to reduce litter in Balmaha. The pretty village on East Loch Lomondside is one of the most popular destinations in Loch Lomond.

At the heart of the loch side village is The Oak Tree Inn, St Mocha Coffee Shop and Village Shop, all owned by The Fraser Family. Over the last two decades the family has supported a wide range of community projects to help enhance and preserve the village.

Sadly, like many locations in the National Park Balmaha suffers from litter problems, especially on busy days. The family remain supportive to all activity by the National Park Authority, Stirling Council and Friends of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs to resolve litter issues across the park.

To tackle the problem The Oak Tree Inn has today launched a new campaign to Keep Balmaha Beautiful. Visitors to the village will now see boards encouraging them to collect litter pickers and refuse bags from The Oak Tree Inn’s reception for a 10 to 15-minute tidy. Afterwards the Oak Tree will recycle as much of the waste as possible.

Owner Sandy Fraser said ‘We were impressed by a similar initiative to tidy English beaches and were encouraged to introduce our own clean-up campaign to Balmaha. As importantly as sharing the load of keeping the village tidy, we believe that public involvement will send a powerful message, with the hope of discouraging the minority that are guilty of dropping litter’

Over the years many customers have offered to assist us whilst picking litter. We are hopeful that by having more people involved, and by providing them with appropriate equipment we will be to make an even more significant impact’

Owner Stuart Fraser added ‘We want the clean ups to be manageable for visitors, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. We encourage people participating to share pictures on social media, which will help to get the message across. We will be rewarding those who do by placing them in a monthly prize draw.’