Scottish skiers react to CairnGorm Mountain chairlifts controversy

For the last few weeks, this column has been devoted to the fierce and multi-faceted debate surrounding the removal of the chairlifts from Coire na Ciste in the CairnGorm Mountain ski area. The idea behind dealing with this over several issues of the magazine was to give people from all sides sufficient space in which to explain their respective positions; there were some complicated points that needed to be made and it would have been a shame to reduce them all to soundbites. We’ve now heard from Natural Retreats, the company that operates the resort, and from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE), who own the land, about their reasons for getting rid of the lifts. We’ve also heard from the Save the Ciste pressure group, whose members feel that the lifts should have been renovated rather than destroyed, and from the Aviemore Business Association – a group of almost 80 local businesses who are so concerned about the way the ski area is being managed that they have started a Community Right to Buy bid, in the hope of taking ownership of the estate on which it is situated.