LIKE ALL other residents in the Cairngorms National Park, I recently received a glossy brochure seeking my views on its future.

So, let me respond.

First, there is no doubt that we are fortunate to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world - and that is something worth conserving.

But as well as high mountains, clear lochs, pine forest, animals, birds and fine landscapes, we need to look after the interests of the local people too.

Unlike parks elsewhere in the world, there is a vast number of people who live and work in the Cairngorm and Lomond Parks.

The Cairngorms National Park is not an unpopulated wilderness. It is a series of lively towns and villages, with large populations, and with shops, offices, industrial estates, quarries, roads and railways.

These have the same needs as everywhere else in Scotland.

From time to time, I have felt that the needs and interests of the local residents do not get enough or sufficiently fair consideration.

This is especially so in the work I have done over the past 13 years as the local MSP - and in which capacity I now write.

I have repeatedly urged the park authority's leaders that flexibility be shown, especially towards smaller housing development, and the needs of locals.

In particular, we have in the strath a large number of people employed in one way or other in the building sector, and they do a very good job, responsible for building some of the finest new housing I have seen anywhere in the country.

But instead of flexibility towards their needs and those of their workforce, we have recently seen the adoption of policies on affordable housing and developer contribution which local contractors and builders have told me is causing them severe difficulties.

They impose unreasonable and impractical conditions which will serve to prevent smaller-scale investment of the type which is surely appropriate to the needs of the area.

These arguments were made to the park authority before they were adopted, but were disregarded. They should be revisited.

The most important part of my job is trying to help ordinary people who have a serious problem.

One such area of work is with people who have had difficulty with the approach that the park has taken often in relation to an application to build one home.

For example, I have sought to persuade the park not to impose stringent legal restrictions which are not imposed elsewhere - and which may prevent homes being transacted on the open market.

If the park sets a condition which, for example, prevents a person from getting a mortgage, then that surely is in itself unreasonable. That house cannot be sold on the open market. What happens if the house must be sold, through family circumstance, divorce or a job move?

This approach is not the practice pursued in Loch Lomond National Park, I am advised.

The Cairngorm approach has appeared to me in some constituents' cases to go far beyond the requirements of the law. It has the potential to discriminate against people in Scotland because of where they live.

There are many very good things the park does: to celebrate our natural history, our heritage, our magnificent landscape - and to improve our path network.

Over the years, when asked, I have played a part in this work. There are also marvellous staff who work for the park in pursuing these aims. There are advantages in having a national park - such as for example to the vital tourism industry. However, it is time that the park now responds sympathetically to the needs of the locals.

There is an opportunity for the park authority's leadership to listen and to respond, in a way that they have not before. As one of the MSPs elected to represent people in the park, I very much hope that they will.

More and more constituents advise me that every other planning authority is elected - but the national parks authorities are mostly unelected. That is a democratic deficit which is being felt ever more keenly.

It is not easy for any institution any person or business to say: "I got it wrong".

When I was a lawyer, running a small legal practice, I made a mistake or two.

When I did so, I told the client about it, and said that I would put it right, and at my expense, not his!

It is time for the Cairngorms National Park Authority to listen and respond to the wishes and needs of the local people.