A report by Scottish Natural Heritage on proposals to extend the Cairngorms National Park into Perth and Kinross has gone to the Scottish Parliament.

The move follows consultation by SNH on both the new-look Park boundaries and how local council representation should be formed on the park board. The next steps towards extending the national park will be taken by Scottish ministers.

The SNH report recommends the new boundary includes the Drumochter hills and summits; in Glen Garry the entire lengths of the River Garry, A9, railway and National Cycle Route 7 lying between Dalnaspidal and Killiecrankie; the communities of Calvine, Blair Atholl and Killiecrankie; the Gaick and Atholl hills and foothills, and the dispersed community within upper Glen Shee.

This extension will extend the national park - already the UK's largest - by almost 20%, adding another 71,000 hectares and an additional 930 residents in the Blair Atholl and Glen Shee areas.

Environment minister Michael Russell says: “The extension of the Cairngorms National Park presents a clear opportunity for us to include and involve even more communities in our park and I am grateful to SNH for the consultation work they have done. The timing of the change to the boundary will need to be considered later in the spring in the light of the findings of the consultation on the recommendations of National Parks Strategic Review.

“The consultation demonstrates the wide local support for an extension of the park south into Perth and Kinross and I am delighted to beable to place their report and recommendations before my colleagues at the Scottish Parliament today. I'm glad to say I would expect this matter to be concluded before long and many will be pleased that we're nearly at the end of this process.”

Susan Davies, SNH’s North operations director, says: “SNH was tasked by ministers to conduct the consultation into the reshaping of the Cairngorms Park boundary and we are pleased our recommendations have been placed before the Scottish Parliament.

“We ran the consultation earlier this year and a total of 66 people and organisations responded. Our recommended boundary is based on the line proposed in John Swinney’s National Parks Boundary Bill, however, having listened carefully to people’s views, we have recommended changes in three locations - along Glen Garry, at Killiecrankie, and in Glen Shee.

“It is now time for us to thank all the local people who helped us publicise the consultation and who took time to comment. Their contributions have been extremely useful in preparing the report.“

The report details maps of the SNH recommended boundary and a summary of the consultation responses are available on the website at www.snh.org.uk/nationalparks