Cairngorms and Lomond and Trossachs National Parks have now existed for 21 years. Perhaps uniquely for any MSP, I have lived within both areas, and represented a large part of Cairngorms Park over the whole of that time.
It is not for me to speak for the people of Galloway. But my advice is: Be very careful!
National Parks have been, in my view, a brake on development, and have not delivered benefits for the people who live and work there. They are hugely staffed, and the epitome of bureaucracy.
Yes of course good things have happened in both, but these are mostly because of the hard work of people and businesses. The advocates of Parks assert that virtually every good thing that has happened in each area is because of the Parks. No doubt they deliver sunny days too.
A recent poll conducted by Aviemore Community Forum asked several hundred residents whether they thought that the Cairngorms Park had performed well. 92% said “NO” and a paltry 3% said “YES.”
I put this fact to the Cabinet Secretary recently, but she was not aware of it. She and Nature Scot ignore this and other opinion sampling by for example the NFUS who are campaigning against the Park.
Nature Scot conducting the “consultation” say they are neutral but few believe that to be true. Ironically, the commitment to set up a new Park was not even in the SNP manifesto at the 2021 election. It WAS, however, in the deal with the Greens – the “Bute House” agreement, now, thankfully in my view, recycled into the dustbin of history. But the enormous mess the so called “wine bar revolutionaries” left behind them includes this continuing commitment to set one up.
Farmers, crofters, land managers, factors, ghillies, keepers and a whole series of others working in the real rural economy have almost unanimously found the Cairngorms Park either a disappointment, or actually damaging.
Species have been introduced such as the beaver over the objection of farmers : – their views were ignored. Recently, a “fact finding” trip to Switzerland by Park bosses considered also reintroducing the lynx. Have farmers and others not got enough problems protecting livestock from predators and worrying to deal with?
There has been no independent analysis of how the two existing parks have performed. The Petition to Holyrood asked for this but the Scottish Government have so far said no. Nor recently did the Cabinet Secretary agree to asking the people what they think in a local referendum. That’s odd as I did mention I thought the SNP favoured asking the people and supported referenda. No – not only did she dig her heels in but concreted them over, by ruling it out totally.
So there we have it: You will be getting your park whether you want it or not; and an unelected mistrusted quango Nature Scot will be the key arbiter of whether you support one or not.
If that is how the Scottish Government think democracy should work, I suggest that they go on a reading course of George Orwell – perhaps adding Franz Kafka to the list.
I commend the local campaign run by locals in Galloway against the proposed Park and will continue to argue that there are far far more pressing needs to be attended to by our Government, such as roads, health and education- than foisting another £10Million a year bureaucracy on Galloway.
Fergus Ewing MSP
