What is the purpose of this, what are you trying to achieve? Expand Natural England is the body who are responsible for designating National Parks and making amendments to them. Any organisation can potentially collect evidence and ask them to review a boundary of a National Park, but to succeed, a substantial amount of evidence and resource is needed. Friends of the Lake District have a track record of success in this field. Due to our background research work and campaigning, both the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks were extended on 1 Aug 2016. This led to a group of parish councils in the Duddon area considering the issues and deciding that they would also like to be included within the Lake District National Park. This led to the formation of the Southern Boundary Partnership covering Parish Councils from Silecroft to Grange–over-Sands. However, they recognised they did not have the experience or resources needed to do this on their own and so approached Friends of the Lake District. We have been working as partners on this project for some time. The ultimate aim is to have additional areas of south Cumbria which meet the statutory tests for National Park quality added to the Lake District National Park, and to achieve this, we have to persuade Natural England to review the boundary and amend it along the lines our independent report suggests.
What are the disadvantages of being in a National Park? Expand A concern of many people is that house prices in the National Park are unaffordable and that National Park status would make it harder for young people to own a house in the area. Evidence shows that house prices in designated areas are higher than outside. However, detailed evidence from all the planning authorities within Cumbria shows that the gap between local wages and house prices within many parts of the proposed extension area is already as great as the average prices within the National Park. The District and Borough Councils work with the LDNPA and all local planning/housing authorities across the whole of rural Cumbria to promote more local and affordable needs housing. Although the proportion of new houses is small compared to the existing stock, in all of these areas any new homes must have a local and/or affordable occupancy tie. This is essential to prevent more second and holiday homes that can result if speculative open market housing is allowed. The greatest proportion of new housing will be developed on allocated sites within and adjacent to settlements. Another concern is that the planning policies for the National Park will be more restrictive than those currently in place. However, the similarities in planning restrictions within and outside a National Park area are much greater than the differences, and that the perception of more regulation is usually far higher than the reality. The benefits of planning by an NPA identified in Defra research in 2011 were a cohesive approach to planning over the NP area and a focus on community engagement. This is not the same as saying that the approach would be more restrictive. As the body responsible for all planning matters within the National Park from strategic policy-setting to development control, the NPA take a coordinated, consistent and clear approach to their planning remit, to the benefit of all those living within. The NPA formulates planning policy in close consultation with the communities affected and special interest groups and offer a high level of support and advice to anyone wishing to make a planning application. The NPA’s work on development control compares favourably in terms of the work of other local planning authorities – figures from Communities and Local Government show that they have equivalent or higher approval rates for planning applications than other planning authorities. These figures are averages however and include the major towns of Kendal, Barrow and Whitehaven, so in reality the approval rate in the rural areas should be the same within and outside the National Park. In terms of the Lake District, figures for planning application approval rates are given below for 2017 Planning authority Total applications % decisions delegated to officers % applications approved Barrow BC 330 72 95 Copeland BC 392 95 98 South Lakeland DC 907 92 93 Lake District NPA 1217 92 94
Why are you doing it not the National Park Authority? Expand Natural England is the body who are responsible for designating National Parks and making amendments to them. Any organisation can potentially collect evidence and ask them to review a boundary of a National Park, but to succeed, a substantial amount of evidence and resource is needed. Friends of the Lake District have a track record of success in this field. Due to our background research work and campaigning, both the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks were extended on 1 Aug 2016. This led to a group of parish councils in the Duddon area considering the issues and deciding that they would also like to be included within the Lake District National Park. However, they recognised they did not have the experience or resources needed to do this on their own and so approached Friends of the Lake District. We have been working as partners on this project for some time. Whilst the LDNPA could if they wished ask for a review of their own boundaries, some people may find this politically unacceptable if they were seen to be wishing to expand their area.
What are the benefits of being in a National Park? Expand Increasing the amount of protected landscape between the current boundary of the Lake District National Park and Morecambe Bay would clearly have a benefit of helping to secure the future of the special qualities of the area. But there is a commonly held view that designation will conflict with the well-being of local communities. However, the opposite is often true. Conservation of wildlife and landscape can bring considerable economic and other benefits. For more information see p10 of the Executive Summary, and p301 of the full report