Bid to widen Cairngorms National Park boundaries

Published on Friday 19 January 2007 00:06

A FRESH attempt to extend the Cairngorms National Park into Highland Perthshire is to be made next month .

The area was originally recommended to be part of the park but was excluded by the Scottish Executive when the boundary was finally approved.

John Swinney, the SNP MSP for Tayside North, has raised a private member's bill to widen the area, already the biggest national park in the UK.

It proposes the park should include the Forest of Atholl including Blair Atholl, the Beinn Udlamain mountain group to the west of the A9 and an area around the A93 including Glas Tulaichean and the Spittal of Glenshee (excluding Kirkmichael).

The Scottish Parliament's environment and rural development committee is seeking views on the proposals and will take evidence at a meeting in Blair Atholl on 5 February.

It will look at the potential impact on business, tourism and natural heritage in the areas of Perthshire that the bill proposes and on those in the existing national park area.

The Perthshire Alliance for the Real Cairngorms (PARC), a multi-agency body, has been calling for a boundary change.

The alliance includes Perth and Kinross Council, which was recently prevented by Transport Scotland from erecting road signs at Blair Atholl welcoming people to the "gateway to the Cairngorms" on advice from the Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA) and VisitScotland.

The council is seeking an early meeting with the transport minister to discuss the issue.

A spokesman for the group said: "PARC is campaigning to have the boundary of the Cairngorms National Park extended into Perthshire.

"It is also keen to promote Blair Atholl as the 'gateway to the Cairngorms' on brown road signage as it feels that is an accurate description.

"However, after consultation with VisitScotland and the CNPA, Transport Scotland has written to the council advising that we cannot use this description on signs."

He added: "We also await with interest the outcome of John Swinney's bill to extend the national park's boundaries."

Bill Wright, director of the Association for the Protection of Rural Scotland, supports the sign proposal in Blair Atholl. He said: "Geographically it is the gateway to the Cairngorms."

A CNPA spokeswoman said the park boundary was a matter for the Executive, but if it was extended the authority would require additional resources to manage the enlarged area.

The Cairngorms park, at 1,466 square miles, is already double the size of Scotland's only other national park, in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs.