THE long-awaited offer of European cash to help fund the Cairngorm funicular railway has been made by officials in Brussels – but with strings attached.
The Scotsman understands that conditions, possibly running to several dozen, have been imposed on the offer of £2.5 million.
Campaigners opposed to the controversial plan to boost tourism on Cairn Gorm are demanding the publication of the conditions and an urgent discussion of the matter in the Scottish parliament.
The grant from the European Commission is the final piece in the financial jigsaw for the £15 million project which continues to be opposed by conservationists and hillwalking groups.
Work on the railway, which will take visitors almost to the top of one of Britain’s highest mountains, was due to start this spring, but has been delayed while EC approval was awaited.
The arrival of several pages of new commercial, planning and environmental conditions could now lead to at least several more weeks of delay.
Sources at Highlands and Islands Enterprise, which must sign up to the conditions, said some conditions could even prove to be "deal breakers" if they were deemed to threaten the viability of the publicly funded scheme. Negotiations with the EC would then ensue and could result in even more delays.
HIE would not comment on the possibility of no agreement being reached with Brussels, the offer being withdrawn and the scheme grinding to a halt.
Although the EC has not imposed a confidentiality order on its offer, a decision on whether the number and nature of the conditions will be published has yet to be made by HIE and the Scottish Office. It is possible the financial conditions will remain secret.
Dave Morris, director of Ramblers Scotland, said yesterday the new restrictions on top of the existing management agreement with Scottish Natural Heritage and the section 50 planning agreement, which would stop visitors from getting access to the top of the mountain from the railway, raised more doubts about the entire scheme.
"The promoters of this white elephant development, who think they could easily vary the planning conditions once visitor numbers fail to reach the levels required for financial viability, should now realise that that will set them on a collision course with the EC," he said.
Bill Wright of the Save the Cairngorms Campaign, backed the Ramblers’ call for the new conditions to be made public as soon as possible.
"This is one public body, the European Union, funding another, HIE, with taxpayers’ money and we have a right to know what deals are being done," he said.
"This is a freedom of information issue and we want to see those conditions ... If they agree to something which makes the scheme even less viable, the waste of money, on top of the possibility of the EC clawing back what it pays now, will make the funicular a black hole for public funds."