Skye Cuillin Helicoper Flights

In November 1996 Man Friday Helicopters of London applied for planning permission to build helipads below the Cuillin Mountains with the intention of running summer tourism helicopter flights over the Cuillin ridge. These flights would have been for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, 6 months of the year. The MCofS campaign prevented Man Friday Helicopters of London from building helipads or using the Broadford airstrip. Our ongoing campaign against helitourism over all Scottish mountains influenced government policy and led to the value of wild land being recognised for the first time in a National Planning Policy Guideline (NPPG 14, paragraph 16). This established the principle that development outside a National Scenic Area (NSA) can have an effect on the quality of people's enjoyment of the NSA and that planners should take great care to safeguard wild land character for that reason.