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