Cairngorms Legal Challenge outcome
Some months ago we promoted the work of the Cairngorms Campaign and BSCG in a legal appeal – a disappointing result has been recorded…
After a wait of over seven months, the judgement from the court case against the Cairngorms National Park Authority’s Local Plans was announced on Friday 21st September. Disappointingly, despite the strong case presented for us by Sir Crispin Agnew QC, our challenge was dismissed by the Judge Lord Glennie in a judgement that runs to some 180 pages. A link to the text of the judgement can be found on our website (www.bscg.org.uk).
This judgement means that none of the four housing allocations we were challenging have been quashed and the CNPA’s adopted Local Plan remains as it was in its entirety. However, despite what has appeared in some newspapers, it remains the case that none of the four ‘challenge’ sites yet have full planning permission and some don’t even have outline permission.
Revealingly, this judgement shows that the law is failing to deliver for the environment in Scotland, even in our top tier sites and for species and habitats for which we have international responsibility such as Caledonian pine forest. The CNPA is charged with conserving and enhancing the natural heritage of the National Park, yet in practice the Authority is promoting environmentally damaging large scale housing expansion far in excess of local needs, which have all the hallmarks of unsustainable, developer-driven developments.
The CNPA’s press statement about the outcome states that the judgement will help them “to deliver the four aims of the Park for the benefit of people and nature." Yet the CNPA is now promoting the expansion of the An Camas Mor new town site by some 25%, taking the site close to the River Spey.
We have been overwhelmed by the level of public support that we have received towards the considerable costs of mounting this case – thank you very much for every contribution. Needless to say we could not have done this without your support.
It goes without saying that BSCG will continue to do all we can to protect these and other sites from inappropriate development and to flag up the mismatch between what our National Parks should be achieving for Scotland’s outstanding environment and what is happening in practice.
Thank you again.
Tessa Jones
For Badenoch & Strathspey Conservation Group.
