Since the cancellation of the process to designate a new National Park in Galloway we have been busy taking the opportunity of the Natural Environment Bill to look at what could be improved in the process of designation, as well as to make existing National Parks more effective.
The news that Ministers were not designating Galloway as Scotland’s next National Park was obviously devastating after such a long campaign. But, instead of moping about, we dived straight into working on the National Park section of the Natural Environment Bill, currently going through the Parliamentary process.
This Bill has proved to be a very timely opportunity to reflect on the process designation and question what might have been done differently. We have been discussing the recent process, and what is actually set out in the legislation, with a range of people involved in the Galloway bid, and with civil servants and MSPs.
There is a really good opportunity, with the Natural Environment Bill still in the committee stage, to encourage the Bill Committee to scrutinise the new National Park process as part of its Stage 1 report. We know that Scottish Government and NatureScot will also be reflecting on the process, and we will be working with MSPs to put forward amendments to the process if that seems the best course of action.
There are a few key suggestions we have put forward so far, as ideas for prompting discussions, and which we hope will lead to further thinking about whether the legislation needs to change. We are also very keen that there is a focus on learning lessons from the additional non-statutory nominations process for potential National Parks, prior to the legislation kicking in.
advocate for some updates and improvements to the process of designating a National Park. ManyMSPs were disappointed over the failure of the Scottish Government to designate Galloway as a National Park and have been keen to look at what learning there is and whether there are ways to improve the process of designation.
In short the suggestions and discussion points we have put forward regarding the process of designating a National Park are:
- Consider introducing a requirement for Scottish Government to produce guidance on how an area suggested as a new National Park has to meet the conditions set out in the 2000 Act
- At the point that Scottish Ministers formally propose a new National Park, and set the Reporting process underway, consider whether a much firmer vision of the National Park they are proposing should be published.
- A consideration of the role of the reporter
These suggestions are expanded on below in more detail.
We also continue to work on elements of the Bill to make existing parks more effective. We are making the case that the language could be tightened up around the new duty that the Bill puts on other public bodies to “have regard to” the aims of the National Park when they make decisions. This move is welcome, but we believe that the wording “have regard to” is too weak and should be strengthened. We would like to see public bodies having a duty to “further the aims” of the National Park. This change has recently been made in the equivalent legislation in England.