Will it result in less development? If the National Park was extended, planning powers would move from the District Council to the Lake District NPA. However, the NPA would continue to assess applications under the existing policies of the Districts until such times as they reviewed and adopted a new Local Plan. As such, until this happened, the policy framework for decisions would remain the same. It is sometimes perceived that being in a National Park means less applications are approved and that there is less development. 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 Manage Cookie Preferences