Committee
Environment and Rural Development Committee, 31 Jan 2007
31 Jan 2007 · S2 · Environment and Rural Development Committee
Item of business
Cairngorms National Park Boundary Bill: Stage 1
I have adhered to the principle that has been applied to the composition of the park authority board as it is today, which is that each local authority that has land within the national park should be able to appoint one or more nominees to the board, which has 25 members, 10 of whom are council nominees. I have accepted that important principle and applied it to the inclusion in the park of parts of the Perth and Kinross Council area that do not currently lie within it.To enable Perth and Kinross Council to nominate a member to the board, I have proposed the mechanism of reducing the Highland Council's representation on the board from five members to four. I did not want to unpick everything that the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 specified. Under my proposal, the total membership of the board would still be 25. I wanted to change only the provisions that relate directly to the proposed addition to the park of areas of highland and eastern Perthshire, so it was logical to take one seat from the council with the largest number of members on the board and to give it to Perth and Kinross Council.The board of the park authority has tended to operate as one would expect it to—as a board for the whole of the Cairngorms national park. There has been little—if any—evidence that the work of council nominees has been driven by thoughts such as, "I am a Highland Council person," or, "I am an Aberdeenshire Council person," or, "I am an Angus Council person." I have proposed a modest, peripheral change in the membership of the board, which I do not think would be detrimental to the interests of other authorities. I have sought to sustain the important principle that every authority whose territory falls within the national park should have representation on the board so that it can have buy-in to the workings of the park and can participate in a wide variety of partnership initiatives, as the authorities that currently have representatives on the board do.
In the same item of business
The Convener:
Lab
Agenda item 3 is the Cairngorms National Park Boundary Bill. The committee has been appointed as lead committee, and our stage 1 consideration of the bill, w...
Mr John Swinney (North Tayside) (SNP):
SNP
Thank you very much, convener. I thank the committee for giving me the opportunity to set out the background to my member's bill. I am also grateful that the...
The Convener:
Lab
Thank you. I am slightly puzzled. Why have you introduced the bill, given that the quinquennial review of the park will take place in 2008? The boundaries wi...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
You raise two issues. First, the park's boundaries have been a source of concern and unease for some time among the communities that I represent. I thought t...
Richard Lochhead:
SNP
I say to John Swinney that I speak as a fellow representative of part of the Cairngorms national park and as a former member of the Rural Development Committ...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
I am sure that Mr Lochhead has seen the letter from Ross Finnie, dated some time in November 2006, that sets out some of the issues. It is not my place to sp...
Eleanor Scott:
Green
This is probably not a fair question to ask you, because it arises from one of the other witness's submissions. You talked about bringing in sites of special...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
The existing boundary means that half a mountain can be in the national park and the other half can be out of it. The boundary crosses mountain summits and, ...
Eleanor Scott:
Green
Does your proposed boundary avoid splitting mountains in two?
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Yes, to the best of my ability.
Rob Gibson:
SNP
You said that your proposals would naturally involve the inclusion of a representative from Perth and Kinross Council on the national park board. The nationa...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
I have adhered to the principle that has been applied to the composition of the park authority board as it is today, which is that each local authority that ...
Rob Gibson:
SNP
Thank you for that detailed explanation.We will speak to other witnesses in due course, but will we receive submissions from other councils? We do not seem t...
The Convener:
Lab
We will get them next week.
Rob Gibson:
SNP
It would have been helpful to have them now.
The Convener:
Lab
Point noted.
Peter Peacock:
Lab
I should draw attention to the interest that I declared at last week's meeting, which is that I once served on the Cairngorms working party, a body that prec...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
In your declaration of interests, you mentioned the Cairngorms Partnership. Perth and Kinross Council was always a party to the discussions of the Cairngorms...
Peter Peacock:
Lab
Notwithstanding what you said about SNH, and your argument about Laggan being in the park whereas SNH did not recommended it, do you accept that, whatever bo...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
I accept unreservedly that there has to be logic to the boundary. My trouble is that I do not see how that logic applies to the current boundary. If we were ...
Peter Peacock:
Lab
I share your desire to find a logical boundary in all circumstances. However, you have already conceded that it is not always possible to find an absolutely ...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Because it is not an absolute science, the logic of any boundary should stand up to scrutiny.
Peter Peacock:
Lab
The judgment should stand up to scrutiny.
Mr Swinney:
SNP
Regardless of whether you call it the logic or the judgment, it must stand up to scrutiny. As I indicated to the committee, if we went on a walk westwards th...
Peter Peacock:
Lab
If you and I linked arms and walked south, rather than west as you suggested, what would be the immediate logic of the boundary that you propose? Would the t...
Mr Swinney:
SNP
The topography begins to change as you go further south. My point is that it does not change as you go west, and that you end up in a very similar environmen...
Peter Peacock:
Lab
All the way to Fort William?
Mr Swinney:
SNP
No, but the boundary must relate in some way to the long title of the bill.
The Convener:
Lab
We do not want to get into the logic of county boundaries, parliamentary constituency boundaries or any other kind of boundary.
Mr Brocklebank:
Con
I have two brief questions. I hope that John Swinney does not interpret them as indicating any hostility on my part towards the aspirations of the bill.I wan...