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Cairngorms National Park: Consultation on draft Designation Order

Draft Designation Order

5. The Scottish Ministers are content that the consultation undertaken by SNH was extensive and thoroughly carried out, and that the report produced met the requirements set. Having fully considered the SNH report the Ministers propose to establish a Cairngorms National Park along the following lines:

The Case for a National Park

6. The Scottish Ministers welcome the Reporter's conclusion that the proposed area meets the conditions for establishing a National Park, as set out in the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000, and that the level of support for a National Park in the Cairngorms has increased significantly. The Scottish Executive remains committed, as set out in the Programme for Government "Working together for Scotland", to establishing Scotland's first two National Parks by early 2003.

Area/Boundaries

7. The Scottish Ministers have decided that the Park area should consist of the main Cairngorms massif and adjacent settlements together with the Grantown-on-Spey area.

8. The maps attached to the draft Designation Order reflect these decisions. These maps (at 1:10,000 scale) show the boundary at a high level of detail. One of the main aims of this consultation is to clarify and agree the exact line of the boundary to ensure that it is drawn in the most practical and sensible place.

Planning (and other) Powers

9. The Scottish Ministers have noted the polarisation of views on the delivery of the planning function and that the arguments for and against any particular proposal are finely balanced. They have given careful consideration to the advice of the Reporter (which they note is supported by SNH) and believe that the local authorities should retain a significant degree of control. However, they also believe that for the Park Authority to be able to promote fully the aims of the Park, it too must be in a position to influence planning outcomes.

10. The Scottish Ministers have concluded that:

• responsibility for preparing structure plans should remain with the local authorities but that the Park Authority should be a statutory consultee on their preparation; and
• the Park Authority should have responsibility for preparing a Park wide local plan (or plans) and should consult appropriate local authorities and other interests when preparing a local plan.

11. As regards development control, the Scottish Ministers intend to leave this function with the local authorities. However, they consider that the Park Authority should be able to call-in for its consideration any application which raises a planning issue that is of significance to the National Park aims under section 1 of the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000. This is envisaged as a pro-active rather than a reactive role. It is not intended that the Park Authority will simply step in when a local authority is minded to grant planning permission. Instead, the Park Authority will be expected to intervene at a much earlier stage. The local authorities will have 3 days from receipt of an application to notify the Park Authority of receipt and the Park Authority will have up to 2 weeks from notification to decide whether to call-in the application for its consideration. The Park Authority will be bound by the Town and Country Planning (Notification of Applications) (Scotland) Direction (Circular 4/1997) in the same way as local authorities. It is proposed that local authorities should not have a right of appeal to the Scottish Ministers where the Authority exercises its call-in powers.

12. The Scottish Ministers believe that the local authorities should continue to have enforcement, tree preservation order and advertisement control powers for use in the Park area, but that the Park Authority should share these powers. However, views on this arrangement are sought. They have no strong views, however, on which authority should have the other associated powers under parts III-X and XII-XIV of the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997 which are to be transferred to the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. Views on whether these should remain with the local authorities, be given to the Park Authority instead, or whether the Park Authority and the local authorities should both have these powers would be welcome.

13. The Scottish Ministers agree about the need for a protocol between the Park Authority and the local authorities for handling planning matters (particularly call-in matters). This will be taken forward without the need for any statutory provision being made.

14. It will be for local authorities to decide whom to nominate to be members of the Park Authority. Training in planning will be given as part of the training programme for members of the Park Authority.

15. We note the strong support from the Reporter and SNH for the proposal in the Review of Strategic Planning that strategic planning issues could be covered in the National Park Plan.

Membership of the National Park Authority

16. Scottish Ministers accept the Reporter's conclusion that the NPA should consist of 25 members. They have also decided that there should be 5 directly elected members, giving a 5:10:10 split of the 25 members (5 directly elected, 10 local authority nominees (who will be appointed by the Scottish Ministers), and 10 direct appointments by Scottish Ministers). The suggested split of the 10 local authority nominees is given below, and provided for in the draft Designation Order:

17. Ministers also accept the Reporter's conclusion that a breadth of experience and knowledge will be important among the members of the NPA, but that places on the NPA should not be reserved for specific public bodies or interest groups. The draft Designation Order therefore makes no specific provision for this.

18. Ministers have decided that the number of appointed members who are required to be "local" (as required under schedule 1, paragraph 3(5) of the Act) should be set at 5 in the draft Designation Order. This will mean that a minimum of 40% (10 members) of the NPA will be either locally elected or appointed as local.

Potential Costs of the National Park

19. Ministers note the Reporter's conclusions on the potential costs of the National Park. The annual funding of the National Park Authority from the Scottish Executive will be decided through the normal public expenditure process, as for other Governmental organisations.

Name of the National Park

20. Ministers note the Reporter's conclusion that the name of the National Park should be "The Cairngorms National Park: Pàirce Nàiseanta a' Mhonaidh Ruaidh". They accept the principle of a bilingual name and are considering how this should be reflected in the drafting of the Designation Order.

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