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CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 
Planning Paper 5 23 September 2005 

CAIRNGORMS NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY 

Title: CNPA Response to the White Paper: 
“Modernising the Planning System” 

Prepared by: Don McKee 
(Head of Planning) 


Purpose 

1. This report is to seek Members’ agreement to a CNPA response to the 
Scottish Executive White Paper “Modernising the Planning System”. 


Recommendation 

2. That Members consider the attached suggested basis for a CNPA response 
to the White Paper and agree the content of the formal response. 


Executive Summary 

3. Members have had electronic access to the White Paper for several weeks, 
been supplied with the Executive Summary and received a presentation and 
briefing from Jim Mackinnon, Chief Planner at the Scottish Executive. There 
will hopefully by now be a reasonable degree of familiarity with the proposals. 

4. The White Paper proposes the biggest overhaul of the Scottish planning 
system for decades. A hierarchy of national, major, local and minor 
developments will be established. There will be enhanced community 
engagement, as well as a more defined role for developers, in development 
plans and planning determinations. Plans will become simpler and more 
focussed. Determinations will become management and not control. 
Enforcement will be given greater priority. Within this context there are a lot 
of detailed changes proposed. 

5. We need to assess the potential impact of the White Paper for the Cairngorms 
National Park: 

• What are the implications of the proposals for our unique planning function 
and our duty to deliver the 4 aims of the Park? 

• Change on this scale is always rather daunting, but do the proposals 
present opportunities that will help us plan for the Park’s future? 

• Can we suggest Park related issues that we consider should have been 
covered in the White Paper? 

6. Rather than write a lengthy report, the White Paper proposals and suggested 
responses are set out in a table that forms an appendix to this report. It is 
intended that Members should be able to cross-reference this to the White 
Paper and use it as the basis for discussion at the meeting. 

Don McKee 
17 September 2005 

donmckee@cairngorms.co.uk