63.Section 9 of the Act makes adjustments to the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (“the 2003 Act”) and the 2000 Act to allow new National Park authorities to be local authorities for the purposes of land access rights.
64.Part 1 of the 2003 Act sets out land access rights and section 32 (interpretation of Part 1) makes the National Park authorities which existed at the time of commencement local authorities for land access purposes. This means that any new National Park which is designated after the commencement of the section would not be able to be the local authority for access rights purposes and this would instead fall to the local council.
65.Section 9(2) amends the 2003 Act to add new National Park authorities which have been specified in the designation order as being the local authority for the purpose of this Part to the section 32 definition of “local authority”. Section 8(4) amends section 7 of the 2000 Act to add to the information required in a designation order to require that a designation order must specify whether the National Park authority is a local authority for the purposes of Part 1 of the 2003 Act. The 2000 Act is also amended in subsection (5) to include the specification as a local authority in the information which cannot be modified or revoked without additional process in section 30(2)(a)(iii). A specification as a local authority for the purposes of the 2003 Act may also be added to a designation order using section 30 of the 2000 Act.
The Act National Park authorities as local authorities for access rights Section 9 –Meaning of local authority for the purpose of access rights