Campaigners against a national park in Galloway have welcomed an overwhelming vote by Dumfries and Galloway councillors to support a referendum into the highly divisive issue.
At a meeting of the full council in Dumfries today (December 12), councillors backed a motion from independent councillor Dougie Campell, by 24 votes to 13, to ask the Scottish Government to hold a referendum in the region at the conclusion of the current NatureScot consultation, which runs until February.
No Galloway National Park campaign co-founder Liz Hitchsmann, who attended the meeting, said it was a victory for common sense:
“The NatureScot consultation has been so biased that a referendum is the only way to give everyone in the area a fair say. Of course we would accept the result whichever way it went, but the important thing is that there is complete, unchallengeable clarity about what the people of this area want.
“Unfortunately, the NatureScot process has been so skewed in favour, with communications promoting the pro-park campaign website while ignoring ours, that we simply can’t trust them to reach a fair conclusion based on the true will of local people, and this decision shows that local people must not be ignored.
“When the consultation has been so clouded with bias, which has made the issue more divisive than it already was, it’s just common sense to hold a fair and balanced referendum.”
Campaign co-founder Denise Brownlee added: “The council represents local people and this sends a clear message to the Scottish Government that locals cannot be ignored and the final say must be theirs and theirs alone, not some distant agency and their friends in pressure groups who will not have to live with the consequences.
“We know the minister Mairi Gougeon has ruled out a referendum, but this should send her back to her office to think again.”
More on this story can be found:
BBC News – Council backs national park local referendum call
STV News – Council votes to ask Government for referendum on Galloway National Park plan
