Cairngorm National Park Boundaries - Public Meeting
National Park Boundaries Meeting
At the public meeting in Blair Atholl Village Hall on 8 June to discuss the possible boundaries’ extension of the Cairngorms National Park to include Highland and Eastern Perthshire, MSP John Swinney announced the results of the consultation exercise on the issue.
Attended by local people, representatives of local communities within the affected areas and representatives of other organisations, the meeting learned that the process attracted 27 responses analysed in a comprehensive document published at the gathering. They key points in the response are –
· 80% of respondents believed the existing boundaries impede the National Park in achieving its aims,
· 93% of respondents said they thought there would be environmental, economic and social benefits of extending the boundaries of the National Park,
· 61% of respondents believed a member of Perth and Kinross Council should be included on the Board of the National Park Authority, |
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82% of respondents believed the costs of extending the boundaries of the National Park would be minimal.
There was a general view in the consultation responses that extending the boundaries of the National Park would make the Park a more coherent unit for environmental and land management. There was also a clear consensus that economic opportunities could be realised for communities, such as Blair Atholl and the Spittal of Glenshee and surrounding areas, by creating Gateway facilities for the Park particularly for visitors approaching from the South.
Some concerns were expressed that the operational performance of the Park to date had undermined some of the advantages of membership of the National Park but on balance there were more advantages to disadvantages from being within the National Park area.
The MSP commented: “The overwhelming majority of responses give a positive welcome to the proposal to extend the boundaries of the National Park to include the areas of my constituency that were carved out by the Scottish Executive back in 2002.
“There are clearly a number of environmental, economic and social benefits of including these areas in the National Park. The extension would give an environmental coherence to the Park as the current boundary literally splits significant mountains in two parts. This undermines the abilities of agencies to deliver coherent environmental management.”
These responses will now form part of the development of a Bill to extend the boundaries of the National Park which will be taken to the Scottish Parliament for action.
The purpose ofJohn Swinney's Bill is to extend the boundaries of the Cairngorms National Park to ensure it includes the areas of Eastern and Highland Perthshire that were originally recommended to be included in the Park, but which were excluded in the final Designation Order by the Scottish Executive. These comprise the Forest of Atholl including Blair Atholl, the Beinn Udlamain mountain group to the west of the A9 and the northern part of sub-unit 15 that includes Glas Tulaichean and the Spittal of Glenshee but excludes Kirkmichael.
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