National Scenic Areas Proceedings of 2007 Seminar

HISTORY OF THE NSA DESIGNATION

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) inherited from the former Countryside Commission for Scotland (CCS) its responsibility for the National Scenic Area designation.

Although the Ramsay Committee in 1945 identified five areas of Scotland that were thought worthy of National Park designation their recommendation to create National Parks were not implemented. Instead, in 1948 the Government identified five National Park Direction Areas where there was to be stricter planning control. These areas were subsequently subsumed into the National Scenic Areas in 1981 – see below.

The roots of the NSA designation lie in the Park System for Scotland policy paper published by the former Countryside Commission for Scotland in 1974. This paper described a system of parks, mainly with a recreational purpose. A top-tier of Special Park aimed to provide protection and enhancement for those outstanding areas of Scotland's scenery which were also under heavy recreational and related pressures – essentially a revival of the National Park idea.

The paper also reflected that there were many areas of outstanding scenery which were not subject to the heavy pressures of areas like Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, the Cairngorms or Ben Nevis and Glencoe, which were the three areas seen to be in need of top-tier Park status. These other landscapes were "... considered to be of unsurpassed attractiveness which must be conserved as part of our national heritage".

The Park System for Scotland proposals were accepted by Government, after consultation with key parties, and the CCS set in hand a programme of survey work to identify those landscapes which might be candidates for the new landscape designation. The outcome of an intensive debate within the CCS was a series of 40 areas, which were described in Scotland's Scenic Heritage, published in 1978.

There followed a period of discussion between the CCS, The Scottish Office, and the local authorities through COSLA, about how the new designation was to be implemented, and what mechanisms would be needed to secure the protection and enhancement of the identified areas. The outcome was SDD Circular 20/1980, Development control in NSAs, which introduced the new designation and a series of Directions under Town and Country Planning legislation, thereby establishing the 40 areas within the planning system. At the same time, these Directions extinguished the five National Park Direction Areas which dated back to 1948. Circular 20/1980 was implemented from August 1980, apart from Highland Region and the Western Isles where the new arrangements came into force a year later.

The planning procedures agreed for the NSA were that Circular 20/1980, and the later  Circular 9/1987, required authorities to have policies to protect the NSA in their development plans and a limited number of development categories were identified (including some previously enjoying permitted development rights – such as hill tracks) which would be referred for an opinion to CCS. Where there was a difference of view between CCS and the planning authority on how the case should be handled, the matter would be referred for adjudication to the Secretary of State. The role of the NSAs in the planning system has been strengthened over recent years by National Planning Policy Guidelines, most notably through the new NPPG 14 on the Natural Heritage.

In Scotland’s Scenic Heritage it was recognised that, if the NSA was to be effective, then it would be important for it to have a strong influence on land use change lying outwith the Town and Country Planning system. So the Commission established in the 1980s a pilot programme to explore how landscape strategies might be prepared for each NSA, in order to secure influence over change caused by land management decisions.

The first pilot scheme was run in the Glen Lyon and Loch Rannoch NSA, where a comprehensive approach and extensive consultation involving the local authorities and other parties led to the preparation of a landscape strategy. The second pilot scheme, for the Eildon and Leaderfoot NSA, took a much more concise approach to survey, in recognition that it would not be feasible to implement for all 40 NSAs the comprehensive approach taken in the first pilot study.

Legislation was enacted in 1986 – inserted as Section 262C of the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1972 – to confirm the NSA designation in primary legislation. In practice, this legislation was never used, and later it was amended by Section 6 of the Natural Heritage (Scotland) Act 1991 to become the basis whereby Natural Heritage Areas could be created.

In 1998 Scottish Natural Heritage issued a consultation paper on the future of NSAs which, after an analysis of the responses received, resulted in the publication in 1999 of National Scenic Areas: Scottish Natural Heritage’s advice to Government. This, amongst other things called for NSAs to be given a statutory base to define their purpose, a new responsibility on all public bodies to safeguard NSAs and a requirement on local authorities to produce management strategies for NSAs in their area. Additionally there was a recommendation that where NSAs occurred within the boundaries of any forthcoming National Parks, the NSA designation be subsumed into the National Park designation. In 2000 The National Parks (Scotland) Act was passed, resulting in Loch Lomond and the Trossachs being designated as Scotland’s first National Park in 2002 and the Cairngorms the second in 2003; to date the NSAs continue to exist within the National Parks.

In 2001 pilot projects were set-up by local authorities and SNH to produce management strategies for the Wester Ross NSA and for the three NSAs in Dumfries & Galloway; the process included the involvement of local stakeholders and the appointment of a project officer to oversee the process. Both projects resulted in management strategies for the respective NSAs, published in 2003, although to-date the Wester Ross strategy has not been formally adopted by the Highland Council. Dumfries & Galloway Council is currently implementing the strategies for its three NSAs.

In January 2006, the Scottish Executive published a consultation document Enhancing Our Care of Scotland’s Landscapes which contained proposals for new legislation to give Scottish Ministers powers to designate, de-designate or revise the boundaries of any NSA. It proposed a statutory definition of purpose of NSAs together with criteria for designation; and also proposals for promoting a non-statutory approach for their management, utilising the expertise of SNH, and working towards preparation of management strategies and implementation of action plans for individual NSAs.

Section 50 of The Planning Etc. (Scotland Act) has inserted a new section 263A into the Town & Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, with the following provisions:

SNH October 3rd 2007

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