National park Scotland: Where £160k was spent on consultation for axed Dumfries and Galloway plan

A consultation process that ended in plans for a new national park in Dumfries and Galloway being scrapped cost more than £160,000, it has been revealed.

NatureScot - the Scottish Government’s nature agency - ran the consultation and said the total spent had not yet been finalised.

Plans to create a national park in Galloway have proved controversial | Getty Images

But figures released to the BBC under Freedom on Information legislation show £163,496.55 was spent on the consultation run between November and February.

Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon last month conceded there was too much opposition to the proposals to push ahead with the plans to create a brand new national park in Dumfries and Galloway.

​Mairi Gougeon MSP.

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A total of 54 per cent of the people who responded to their consultation on the proposals opposed the idea of a new national park. When only local responses were included, this increased to 57 per cent.

The Scottish Government told the BBC it was "absolutely correct" to support the nomination process for the Galloway park.

The consultation carried out by NatureScot ran across 12 weeks.

Costs included in the overall spend of more than £160,000 included on printing and posting leaflets (£20,438), a licence for the online engagement platform (£23,220) and consultation events, including hall bookings (£5,695.96).

Other costs included more than £84,000 spent on facilitation and analysis consultants, and £9,900 on an independent review of the consultation. The remaining spend included on a Gaelic translation, as well as board and staff costs.

A map showing the proposed boundary of the Galloway National Park, which will not now go ahead | contributed

The overall cost of the Nature-Scot-run consultation is understood to only be a small portion of the overall spend on national park plans.

The park plans were a requirement of the Bute House Agreement - the power-sharing deal between the SNP and the Scottish Greens that ended more than a year ago.

The Scottish Government had confirmed in May last year that more than £300,000 had been spent on searching for a park site in the plan’s early stages. A further £28,000 was spent, outside of the consultation, in July last year in the wake of Galloway being named as the preferred destination.

In a statement in Holyrood last month, Ms Gougeon said: “We have weighed up the arguments for and against the creation of a new national park in the area, taking full account of the potential economic, social and environmental factors, and we have come to the conclusion not to proceed with the designation of a national park in Galloway and Ayrshire.

“I realise that this decision will be very disappointing for those who have been campaigning for a new national park in Galloway over many years.”

The minister added on the consultation responses: “Support was greatest amongst the environment, recreation and tourism sectors, whilst landowners, land managers and those working in the farming, forestry and renewable energy sectors had the strongest reservations.

“Based on the evidence gathered during the investigation and consultation, the reporter has advised that, whilst it considers that the proposed area meets the conditions for a national park set out in the legislation, the proposal does not have sufficient clarity, nor has it garnered sufficient local support to proceed to the next stage of designation.”

Pete Rawcliffe, NatureScot’s head of people and places, said: “We worked closely with Scottish Government in agreeing the budget for the Reporter commission and we are satisfied that it was proportionate for the work required.

"NatureScot’s work was independently reviewed, and the engagement and consultation work was judged to be of a high standard in an independent review, in keeping with the National Standards for Community Engagement.”