Give locals real say in making national park, urges Ewing

Scotland’s former rural affairs secretary Fergus Ewing has weighed in on the SNP’s hugely unpopular national park proposals and says Green Minister Lorna Slater has adopted a modern day “Marie Antoinette – let them eat cake approach” to their creation.

Mr Ewing, who is MSP for Inverness and Nairn, wrote an article for The Herald, and argued that those in power are not giving the people that live within the boundaries a real say in the decision.

He said: “Why ask people what they want when you already know what they need and have decided what they are to get?

“Our two existing parks – Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and the Cairngorms – were created following law passed in 2000. As an MSP then, I then moved an amendment, unsuccessfully, that no park be established without support demonstrated by a referendum of the local people. The people who, after all, would be most impacted by its decisions.”

The MSP pointed out that in a referendum held last month by the Aviemore and Spey Valley community forum, a massive 92% (444 votes) said the park was “not working well”.

Only 3% (10 votes) said the park was “working well”.

Mr Ewing continued: “Many local farmers in my constituency are concerned at the failure to advance their interests as they had hoped from the park in the early days.

“Beavers are introduced without their consent with the risk of major damage to farm land and injury of livestock. Regulations are stricter within its boundaries than elsewhere. No real effort has been made to promote local produce.

“Instead, tens of millions of pounds have been thrown on projects such as that to ‘save’ the capercaillie whose population has reportedly fallen by about half in the last five years.

“Believe me, the Cairngorms Park is just not popular amongst large swathes of the local population in my constituency.

“The few truly local representatives on the park board over the years have all too often been spurned, sidelined or ignored.

“Let’s not forget the pledge was in the Bute House Agreement not in the SNP 2021 manifesto – so there is no national mandate for the policy.”

He concluded: “My question is how on earth can you have sufficient evidence of such local consent unless you ask all of the people who live there? Not just random groups of activists.

“In a democracy, everyone counts or nobody counts.

“This issue will be a litmus test of whether our Scottish Government truly believes in local democracy where local people determine their own future, or that their fate will be sealed by a centralising and indeed authoritarian power.”

The five remaining parks on the shortlist are Lochaber, Tay Forest, Loch Awe, Galloway and the Borders.

Already, several parts of Scotland have opted out of the process namely Skye and Raasay, Affric and Loch Ness, Ben Wyvis and Glen Affric, in each case because of local concerns amongst those communities.

A new petition – Stop More National Parks in Scotland – was launched on Tuesday on parliament. scot/ and already has almost 1,000 signatures.

COMMUNITY ACTION: A protest was held in Fort William against the proposals for the new Lochaber national park.