Pip’s Patch

ARC News Service – a brief report on some of the issues discussed at the December 2011 meeting of the YDNPA Full Authority including the representation of Dales constituencies on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA), the impact of the government’s National Planning Policy Framework and Localism Act on planning in the Yorkshire Dales including the latest YDNPA Housing Development Plan, Natural England‘s claims that there was a majority in favour of National Park boundary extensions, and how the YDNPA will prioritise its services following the budget cuts. The services affected include the Dales Countryside Museum and the Pennine Bridleway.

LOCAL REPRESENTATION – A good balance of local representation on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority must be maintained, members agreed when they discussed the Defra review of governance.

The majority, therefore, voted against restricting membership to eight years because that would undermine local representation. County Coun John Blackie pointed out that both he and County Council Roger Harrison-Topham had already been members for eight years. “That would remove in a stroke any county councillors from North Yorkshire whose constituents are in the Dales. So you would have people coming from (places like) Scarborough. One of the purposes of the government’s review is to engage more with local communities,” he said. Craven Dt Coun Carl Lis, chairman of the Authority, added that the YDNPA would lose members who had an enormous amount of knowledge.

Members agreed with the proposal to abolish the requirement that district and county councils should, if appointing three or more members to a National Park Authority , ensure that there is a political balance. This has led in the past to members being appointed from Scarborough, Selby and York.  But when County Coun Blackie asked if such councils could be directed to assign to the Authority  councillors who had been elected by residents in the National Park Mr Butterworth said that the government would not consider that.

It was agreed that any resident of the National Park, as long as they were not a county or district councillor, should be eligible to be parish members. At present this is restricted to serving parish councillors and chairmen of parish meetings in the National Park. Richard Daly, the solicitor and monitoring officer, reported that there was a strong view emerging that the National Parks should appoint the parish members rather than the Secretary of State.

NEW PLANNING LAWS – The government’s  new National Planning Policy Framework could invalidate all or part of the YDNPA’s existing local plans the members were warned. Officers noted: “A loss of planning policy would reduce the Authority’s influence in making development decisions and using the Planning system to deliver National Park purposes. For applicants and residents losing the local plans risks inconsistency, delay and additional cost.”

For this reason the Authority is very keen to prepare a new Management Plan and Core Strategy. The Core Strategy should include a 30 year vision for the National Park and could be used for day to day planning application work. The Authority would like to adopt the new strategy by the end of 2014 and the first public consultation period should be between March and May 2012.

N Yorks County Coun Shelagh Marshall asked if the Federation of Small Businesses could also be invited to be represented on the steering group which will oversee the production of the National Park Management Plan. Nine members voted against this proposal with eight being for it.

The Localism Act of 2011 has led to a two tier approach to the examination of development plans. So the YDNPA members had to decide which approach they wanted to submit the new YDNPA Housing Development Plan to. They opted for that in which, if the inspector  found deficiencies in the Plan he could recommend changes. The other option – for the inspector to determine only whether the plan was sound or not – could lead to it being sent right back to the consultation stage.

BOUNDARY EXTENSION  – Members questioned the statistics provided by Natural England to support its claim that the consultation responses showed a large majority in favour of including Orton Fells in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It was pointed out that the 57 objectors included two county councils and three district councils, all of which represented hundreds of residents. As these councils had objected there would have to be an  public enquiry. David Butterworth, CEO, said that the Authority would object on the basis of the cost of the National Park boundary extensions. He said he would ask for detailed costs.

According to the financial formula applied to National Parks the YDNPA would receive an additional £750,000 a year if the boundary of the park was extended. In the government’s governance review  it had been decided not to cut the number of members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority as the boundary extension was on the agenda.

FINANCIAL PRIORITIES -  The large cut in the government grant means that the Authority has to accept that instead of looking to improve services it has to decide where to cut back, Gary Smith, the deputy chief executive told the members. This meant that some programmes would suffer through lack of funds. At a members’ forum in November it was agreed that the top priority programmes would be: farm conservation, building conservation, biodiversity, recreational activities, rights of way, sustainable tourism, and climate change which would include restoring degraded peatland, the creation of more woodland, and to support the implementation of at least three hydro-electric schemes by the end of 2012. Those programmes for which the YDNPA will seek to maintain a good level of service will include the Dales Countryside Museum (DCM), green lanes, volunteers, archaeology, countryside skills and training, national park centres, outreach, toilets and web-based services. Car parks, open access, the Pennine Bridleway and retail will be on the lowest tier of priorities. In the debate about the DCM Mr Butterworth said that the Authority could not now go ahead with the major re-development scheme which had been planned for the museum. Instead there would be just small scale improvements using existing resources.

William Weston warned that the museum project was teetering on the edge. He argued that there was a need for a vision and strategy even if there were limited funds.

For more information see http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/index/nationalparkauthority/authoritycommittees/authority/authority-dec2011.htm