Scottish government scraps plan for new national park

Plans to create Scotland's third national park in Galloway have been dropped.

The proposals - which could have seen the area join the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond and the Trossachs - had proved contentious.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon said the Scottish government had weighed up the arguments for and against and decided not to proceed.

She said she realised that the decision would be "very disappointing" for those who had been campaigning for a new national park in Galloway over many years.

Ms Gougeon said that while there was "substantial support" for the national park and what it could deliver there was also "significant opposition".

"The consultation raised some really important issues that local people care deeply about and we now have the opportunity to look at how we can address these," she said.

She added that the Scottish government remained committed to the existing national parks and could consider creating others in future.

"Our national parks are achieving for people and nature," she said.

Galloway and West Dumfries Conservative MSP Finlay Carson said he had initially supported the plans but it had started to feel like a "designation imposed rather than a designation requested".

He welcomed the decision to drop the plans which he said reflected the views of the people in the area.

He also criticised the process which had led to the decision as "deeply flawed".

However, Labour's South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth said the area had been a "forgotten corner" of the country for too long.

He said he was afraid the area could now become a "dumping ground" for wind turbines and said the Scottish government had taken the "easy way out" in deciding not to proceed.

The Scottish Greens also criticised the decision not to go ahead with the proposals.

"By scrapping plans for the third national park in Galloway, the Scottish government has slammed the door on the economic investment and new powers this designation could bring," Mark Ruskell said.

"This is devastating news for the local community and nature."

One adjective I've heard more often than most about the debate over a new national park for Galloway is "toxic."

And that's never a way to bring cohesion to local communities.

A rushed consultation, compared with those for Scotland's two other parks, probably didn't help, making many feel like their voices and views weren't going to be properly heard.

Undoubtedly the scale of the lobbying effort from the "anti" movement, who engaged a large, slick PR consultancy, has helped their case.

But in the end it was the politics that brought down this plan.

A new national park was never in the SNP's plan - it was a compromise they signed up to with the Scottish Greens as part of the power-sharing Bute House agreement.

Now that agreement has gone, so has the government's commitment to its promises and with a Holyrood election on the horizon it was a fight they just weren't prepared to have.

No Galloway National Park campaign co-founder Liz Hitschmann said they were "very relieved" the Scottish government had recognised the strength of opposition.

"We are so grateful to all those who have supported our campaign, which from a standing start less than a year ago has steadily built momentum as people understood what a national park could really mean," she said.

"There is no question Dumfries and Galloway needs investment in our infrastructure.

"But it did not need millions frittered away on another layer of bureaucracy which could override local wishes, and the many government-funded organisations in the area need to deliver that investment."

Fellow co-founder Denise Brownlee added that everyone in the area needed to hold the Scottish government to promises of a real plan for investment in the region.

Rob Lucas, who chairs the Galloway National Park Association, said: "This is a big loss for our countryside and wildlife, for everyone living in the region and for our entire country.

"Our disappointment is not just for the loss of a national park, but for the whole future of Galloway which has been badly let down once again.

"Galloway and its fragile environment, communities, and economy face huge challenges that must be overcome."

Kat Jones, director of Action to Protect Rural Scotland said the decision to drop the plans was a "tragedy".

John Thomson, who chairs of the Scottish Campaign for National Parks, described it as a "huge missed opportunity".

Creating a new national park was part of a power-sharing deal between the SNP and Scottish Greens

Scotland currently has two national parks but it is more than 20 years since a new one was created.

A power-sharing deal between the SNP and the Scottish Greens in 2021 agreed that "at least one" would be designated by the end of this parliamentary session in 2026.

Although that political agreement collapsed in 2024, the national park process had continued.

Consultation started in 2022 on where the park could be sited and Galloway was announced as the potential location for a new national park in July last year.

Soon after an opposition campaign was launched and an extended consultation was carried out over 14 weeks.

NatureScot delivered its report on that feedback to the Scottish government which has now decided not to take it forward.

The scheme - if it had proceeded - would mainly have been in Dumfries and Galloway but would have extended into parts of Ayrshire.

The term national park is used to describe an area set aside by a national government for the preservation of the natural environment.

It may be designated for purposes of public recreation and enjoyment or because of its historical or scientific interest.

Most of the landscapes and their accompanying plants and animals in a national park are kept in their natural state.

The national parks in the United States and Canada tend to focus on the protection of both land and wildlife, those in the United Kingdom focus mainly on the land, and those in Africa primarily exist to conserve animals.