Proposed national park in Galloway, South and East Ayrshire

After gathering nominations to help identify an area, the Scottish Government has proposed a new National Park to be created in Galloway.

Background

The Scottish Government has proposed a new National Park in Scotland.  After gathering nominations to help identify an area, they made a formal proposal for a new National Park to be created in Galloway.  The proposed boundary includes parts of Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and South Ayrshire.  

NatureScot has been asked to be the Reporter for this proposal. This role involves engaging and consulting with everyone who has an interest in the proposed National Park and how it might operate. We are committed to doing this in a fair and transparent manner, inclusive of all interests. 

No decisions on designating a National Park have yet been made. As part of our advice to Ministers in April 2025, we will provide a full account of all views expressed during these engagement and consultation stages. Following consideration of our advice, the Scottish Government will then take the decision on whether to proceed or not with designating a Galloway National Park. 

Target audience

NatureScot has committed to ensuring that people with protected characteristics are not discriminated against in the engagement and consultation process, particularly due to race, colour, religion, belief or disability. It also outlines how we will be proactive in engaging and consulting protected characteristics groups through bespoke communications and targeted events.

Aims

• To provide information on the proposed National Park that is easy to access and understand.
• To provide a range of accessible opportunities to consider the potential implications of the proposal. 
• To provide a range of user-friendly methods to respond to the formal consultation.

The formal Consultation will run from early November 2024 for 12 weeks, ending in January 2025.

Key areas of the consultation are:

• if the area should be given National Park status,
• what geographical area it should include,
• what form its governance should take (e.g. number of board members),
• what powers it should have (e.g. planning, access),
• its likely structure and operation.

We will use a variety of promotion and communication methods and identify and develop opportunities for proactive media coverage with relevant partner organisations where appropriate. This will include local radio, newspapers and other printed media; social media; relevant newsletters and blogs; and our Information Hub. We will also be hosting public consultation meetings which will be publicised widely in local newspapers and radio, relevant partner social media and through posters and displays. 

We have appointed contractors, Outside the Box, to facilitate the public consultation meetings. They are experienced in engaging with people and communities that are more likely to be excluded or are harder to reach and involve. They have experience and understanding of working in remote rural communities and understand the issues they often face (such as transport, lack of access to services including healthcare, education or shops, lack of affordable housing, effects of extreme weather events). They use a range of approaches to encourage people to participate, which allow people to share their full response, without any influence from other people in the room, and provides a layer of anonymity to their contributions.

NatureScot are looking to hear from you – people within the proposed boundary and communities.

The formal consultation is your chance to share your opinion on how the proposed park might be managed and what powers it could have.

We also want to hear your thoughts about the process of the consultation, and value any input or feedback that help us develop our process.

We can be contacted on email at nationalparkreporter@nature.scot and you can also see updates and complete surveys on our online platform – https://newnationalparkgalloway.commonplace.is/

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