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SCNP,
Background Context.
There has been a long history of interest in obtaining more secure access
to Scotland's outstanding mountain areas and in improving the protection
of its countryside. Over 100 years ago in 1884 James Bryce an Aberdeen
Member of Parliament promoted a first attempt to secure legislation for
access to the mountains.
Further attempts resurfaced in the 1930s on the back of poor social conditions
in the large industrial cities and the creation of the Youth Hostel movement
which offered cheap accommodation in rural settings. As a consequence
of this broad movement to pursue quiet recreation in beautiful countryside
an interest in developing national parks in the UK emerged.
In Scotland the Scottish Council for National Parks was first constituted
in 1943 and was instrumental in establishing the Ramsay Committee which
reported to government on the need for and structure of national parks
in Scotland. Subsequently the Secretary of State for Scotland undertook
to present a Bill to Parliament after The National Parks and Access to
the Countryside Act 1949 was passed for England and Wales. A change of
government occurred and no further action was taken.
In 1969 the Scottish Council for National Parks reconsidered the situation
following the setting up of the Countryside Commission for Scotland (CCS)
and decided to broaden its remit and change its name to the Scottish Countryside
Council. It was then recognised that the proposed new purposes of Council
were similar to the objectives of the Scottish Countryside Activities
Council which had then just been set up. There are no subsequent records
but it is apparent that the Scottish Council for National Parks ceased
activity albeit that there is no evidence of it being formally dissolved.
The hopes that CCS would promote national parks was not realised and indeed
government was discouraging of any move to recommend them.
Nevertheless about 20 years after CCS was set up the Secretary of State
for Scotland asked it to consider whether there was a need for national
parks in Scotland. The Commission prepared its report The Mountain Areas
of Scotland a well argued case for national parks. CCS was then dissolved
and merged with the then Nature Conservancy Council of Scotland to form
a new body Scottish Natural Heritage - which was given no brief to sustain
or promote the CCS recommendation for national parks.
At this point a group of about 20 supporters of national parks in Scotland
- a group comprising members who had been professionally, or at policy
level, concerned with CCS and with promotion of national parks - decided
to revive the Scottish Council for National Parks to take forward the
proposals of the Commission. After a long period of campaigning, Scottish
Ministers undertook to promote national parks in Scotland, following the
1997 election . One of the first actions of the new Scottish Parliament
was to prepare and consider what became the National Parks (Scotland)
Act 2000.
The Council has been active in responding positively to the several consultation
stages through which the Act and subsequent secondary legislation have
passed. With the prospect of the first Scottish national park at Loch
Lomond and the Trossachs being established in 2002, it recognised that
its own purposes would henceforth include the role of promoting new parks,
of monitoring the effectiveness of national park authority management
and conservation and of seeking to ensure continuing government commitment
to financial and other support.
With the advent of legislation to back the promotion of national parks
in Scotland, the Scottish Council for National Parks became eligible to
register in Scotland as a Charity. This was formally approved in January
2001
