More than £300,000 has been spent so far by the Scottish Government taking forward plans for a new national park.

The largest portion of the expenditure, totalling £140,224, went towards nomination support funding.

Nature Scot was awarded £100,000 while the cost of impact assessment totals £48,269.22 so far. The remainder of the £315,881.29 was spent on consultation, which has cost £27,387.77.

The expenditure was revealed in a freedom of information request.

The Scottish Government said it was unable to provide a figure for staffing costs saying civil servants "operate flexibly across a range of policies and programmes according to the specific requirements of the work at any given time."

Lochaber is one of five areas in Scotland in the running to be Scotland's new national park.

Locations in the Scottish Borders, Galloway, Loch Awe and the Tay Forest are also being assessed for suitability with a final decision expected in the Summer.

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The campaign group Lochaber National Park NO More argue that the money would be better spent on infrastructure projects including a replacement for the crumbling Belford hospital.

Rebuild plans were at an advanced stage when the Scottish Government announced earlier this year that funding for capital projects was being put on hold.

The group shared the national park costs on social media, prompting one person to respond: "Scotland contributes about £180m/annum towards the Trident nuclear missile programme and you are worried about £300000.

"Seriously?"

However, Debbie Carmichael, who leads the group, said: "Its a ridiculous amount on a vanity project.

"This is also only covering government costs - it doesn't include other expenditure such as council grants that the working groups have applied for.

"Loch Lomond and the Trossachs has so many issues, as does Cairngorms. Before creating new ones they need to review the existing ones."

Supporters of national parks say they can lead to areas attracting spin-off investment.

Over the past twenty years Cairngorms National Park Authority alone has brought over £24M into the area (on top of core government funding) and was recently awarded a further £10.7M in grant funding towards the Cairngorms 2030 project focused on climate and sustainability.

The Park Authority said that more than 2,000 houses had been built since 2003, including hundreds of affordable houses built over the past few years with investment in much-needed ranger services and visitor infrastructure.

SNP MSP Fergus Ewing has suggested that Scots living within the boundary of the area chosen to be the country's new National Park should be given the chance to vote whether to approve or veto the plans in a local referendum.

Mr Ewing, who represents Inverness and Nairn, said ministers should have reviewed the impact of the two existing national parks - Cairngorms National Park, designated in 2003, and Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in 2002 - before proceeding to establish a third.

Former biodiversity minister Lorna Slater said public consultation had demonstrated "broad support" for new National Parks in Scotland.