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Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2013

13 Nov 2013 · S4 · Meeting of the Parliament

Item of business

National Parks

Grahame, Christine SNP Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale Watch on SPTV

I congratulate Claire Baker on securing the debate. Although I supported her motion, she will be aware that I have lodged what I hope she sees as a friendly amendment. I will refer to that later because it is pertinent to the debate.

I share Claire Baker’s call for a Scotland-wide debate, beyond these walls and this bubble, with the Scottish public. However, we need to keep within realistic funding packages, as we know that we have tight constraints.

I also share the sentiments in the “Unfinished Business” report that

“Scotland’s landscape ranks amongst the best in the world”.

Some of that sits right on the Parliament’s doorstep. We take Arthur’s Seat for granted and, not far flung from here, the Pentland hills have what is called a stunning landscape signature, which lets people know that they are approaching the capital city.

As you are aware, Presiding Officer, my amendment

“notes what it”—

the Parliament—

“considers the important distinction between national and regional parks, such as Pentland Hills”

and

“Clyde Muirshiel”.

The distinction is relevant.

A national park area has substantial protection. There are structured and audited governance arrangements as well as substantial central Government funding, although private funding is levered in.

Sometimes the restrictions are not always popular with the residents, but they should always remember that they are lucky to live in a national park area. It is a privilege to live in an area that is for the use of generations to come.

Regional parks are substantially different from national parks. The first regional parks were set up in the 1960s and the one that I am interested in—the Pentland hills regional park—was established in 1986. Its governance is much looser than that of the national parks. It simply involves a coming together of the local authorities that bound it to fund it in cash or in kind by providing wardens or funding to do the same things that are done in the national parks, such as ensuring that the public can use it responsibly, repairing paths and assisting businesses. Its governance is not really structured and it does not have central Government input—the input comes through local authorities, whose funding is at a pinchpoint.

The problem with the Pentland hills regional park is that when it was set up—which was at the time of regional authorities—the Borders Regional Council and Strathclyde Regional Council areas did not fall within it, with the result that only 43 per cent of the park is protected. I publicise the fact that I intend to lodge a bill to extend the boundary of the regional park to take in the southern part, which would bring in another two local authorities. Before I scare the horses, I make it clear that I am making a distinction between a national park, where planning is rightly regulated, and a regional park, which has very limited protection. I know that some parties in the Pentland hills regional park are frightened of the park becoming a national park in one leap, but the protection that regional park status brings should be there, even though it is less than the protection that national park status brings.

I have no intention of altering the constitution, as such, of the Pentland hills regional park, but I would like the debate about national parks, which Claire Baker has rightly brought to the chamber, to embrace regional parks and, indeed, national areas of scenic beauty. We have a very mixed bag of designations and definitions. If we are to protect Scotland’s landscape, we must bring those together in any debate that we have so that we understand how they interlock and the different functions that they have. We must also talk about them in language that the public will understand so that we all benefit from the landscape around us, particularly as the built environment encroaches on it more and more.

I congratulate Claire Baker on securing the debate. I hope that she does not mind me introducing the issue of regional parks, because I think that the two types of park are strongly linked, and not many people know about the distinction between regional parks and national parks.

17:17