Listening to the discussions at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority‘s  (YDNPA ) Planning Committee meeting held on July 15 2025 I was reminded of the growing discontent in the Yorkshire Dales National Park about how there seemed to be a difference between how rich incomers were treated compared with those whose families have lived here for generations.

The chair of Sedbergh Parish Council, Simon Arnold, told the planning committee: ‘Building strong and resilient communities is not just about encouraging young people to remain in the Park. It is about having a strong core of community in the first place. There is a gradual drain of those who would be the succession to that core in Sedbergh.’ And that is true of many other communities.

At that planning committee meeting a member, Allen Kirkbride, asked if an application by a farmer would have been recommended for approval compared with that for the development of Thorns Farm into a cultural centre (in the open countryside) by millionaire Jonathan Reed.

If I’d been given a fiver for every time I’ve been asked ‘How did they get permission for that?’ concerning the lodges under construction at Aysgarth Falls Hotel  I would have over £100 now!  Above: the lodges as can be seen from the main gates of St Andrew’s church.

For my report on how the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s planning committee came to that decision in October 2023 see Aysgarth Falls Hotel and River Pollution. That decision led to the founding of Stop Ure Pollution.

Permission was granted for open air baths at the lodges .  Those will be connected to the foul  water system and onto the small sewage treatment plant  which discharges in the Ure above the Middle Falls. According to the plans submitted  with that application the lodges won’t be visible from the church. Permission was granted by North Yorkshire Council for a 24/7 alcohol licence covering all of the lodges.

The main application for the lodges was made in January 2023 and, as a major development, was approved  in October 2023. For a farmer in Kettlewell, however, it took over four years to obtain permission for a barn he so badly needed.  He held a barn dance in May 2025 to celebrate once it was finally built. Below: a joyful barn dance.

And there are some more interesting planning applications and approvals.

Alastair Dinsdale, the chairman of the Association of Rural Communities, told the planning committee in November 2024 that without the evidence of livestock on the Howesyke Estate the application for a rural worker’s dwelling at Kidstones Gill Bridge in Bishopdale was a sham. No evidence was forthcoming – and the application was approved even though the applicants owned a nearby farmstead where the rural worker’s dwelling could have been located without being in the open countryside.

And at the YDNPA planning committee on April 15 2025 North Yorkshire councillor Robert Heseltine pointed out that Natural England had used a barn at Chapel le Dale as an office, workshop and laboratory for 30 years without planning permission. He commented: ‘It’s a national body that has been operating out of sight and out of mind and then, when they have got sufficient years under the belt they come forward, not needing planning permission, [and apply] for a lawful development certificate. To my mind and to all other applicants particularly on the agricultural side that stinks – really stinks.’

The Association of Rural Communities agrees with North Yorkshire councillor Yvonne Peacock who stated: ‘‘We have got to start thinking about being consistent and being fair to all.’

Natural England did make changes to the application and it was approved by the planning committee on May 20 2025.