The No Galloway National Park (NGNP) campaign has welcomed a decision by Dumfries & Galloway not to endorse the Scottish Government’s proposal to create a national park across Ayrshire and much of Dumfries & Galloway.
In a special meeting of the full council, councillors voted 25 to 15 in favour of being officially undecided about the plan, a significant change in their previous position to support the concept in principle.
NGNP co-founder Denise Brownlee said: “This throws a huge spanner in the works for the Scottish Government’s plan for a park in our area. It’s such significant decision and shows just how much uncertainty and unhappiness there is about the way this whole process has been conducted by the both the Scottish Government and NatureScot.
“People are starting to realise that you can’t support something when you don’t have any facts, and a vacuum has been created by the lack of clarity in what is being planned. This is a victory for common sense and the Scottish Government has a lot of questions to answer before this plan can go any further.”
Her NGNP co-founder Liz Hitschmann added: “Supporters of a national park really don’t like it when the poor performance in the other two national parks is raised, and a clear majority of councillors recognised it was impossible to effectively give the Scottish Government carte blanche to carry on.
“This is a clear illustration that there is no majority support for imposing a national park on our area, and that is enough for Galloway to fail to meet the original criteria for creating a park. After today, we cannot see how the Scottish Government can proceed with it.”
The NatureScot consultation on a proposed Galloway National Park closes on 14 February 2025.