Plans to introduce new national parks in the Chilterns, Cotswolds and Dorset & East Devvon have faltered, as existing national parks face a funding crisis.

Lucie Heath inews.co.uk

They are the UK’s great outdoor playgrounds. Huge, beautiful, tracts of wild land that for more than 70 years have been made more accessible, and more protected from the ravages of overdevelopment, thanks to their designation as national parks.

Their special status has been one of Britain’s great post war success stories – a fact that all political parties have recognised with both Labour and the Conservatives vowing to create new national parks during the last 2019 general election campaign.

Labour committed to creating 10 new parks, with candidates including the Malvern Hills, Chiltern Hills, Lincolnshire Wolds and North Pennines.

The Tory manifesto didn’t put a number on it. But the party did pledge to “create new National Parks”. And it said, in the same sentence, that it welcomed the 2019 Glover Review – a Government-commissioned report that suggested the creation of three new national parks in the Chilterns, the Cotswolds, and Dorset and East Devon.

But with the next general election looming that promise now seems certain to be broken. If anything work to create new national parks in England has gone “backwards” in recent years, according to campaigners, with “no action” this parliamentary term,

In some areas this seeming ambivalence from Government has even led to campaigners giving up on the idea. Meanwhile funding cuts mean existing national parks are struggling and having to sell off land and buildings to make ends meet.

There are currently 14 national parks in the UK, including nine in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland.

The majority were created in the 50s, however four new parks have been created within this century. These include Loch Lomond and The Trossachs and the Cairngorms, which were created by the Scottish Government in 2002 and 2003 respectively, and the New Forest and South Downs, which were created in 2005 and 2009 under Labour Governments.

The UK’s national parks

Peak District,1951

Lake District, 1951

Snowdonia, 1951

Dartmoor, 1951

Pembrokeshire Coast, 1952

North York Moors, 1952

Yorkshire Dales, 1954

Exmoor, 1954

Northumberland, 1956

Brecon Beacons, 1957

The Broads, 1989

Loch Lomond and The Trossachs, 2002

Cairngorms, 2003

New Forest, 2005

South Downs, 2009

Long-running campaigns have existed in other areas keen to achieve national park status. Local environmentalists want to take advantage of the additional funding and power that comes with being a National Park as opposed to the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) status that areas like the Cotswolds, and Dorset and East Devon, already possess.

“Despite covering a 50 per cent greater area than England’s 10 National Parks, and welcoming more visitors, the 34 AONBs in England receive far less resources from the Government,” says Dr Elaine King, chief executive of Chilterns Conservation Board, the other AONB recommended for national park status by the Glover review.

Similarly Richard Brown, part of the campaign for the creation of a new National Park in Dorset, said Dartmoor National Park receives 16 times the level of funding as Dorset AONB, despite covering an area that is 20 per cent smaller.

Another key difference between AONBs and National Parks is that the latter is run by a single authority that oversees planning for the area.

Mr Brown has seen no progress on creating new national parks since the latest Conservative government came into power.

“We’ve been treading water for some time on this and to some extent we slightly went backwards,” he says.

He believes his group has proved that Dorset meets the criteria for National Park status which would bring many environmental and economic benefits to the area. But it needs “political will” to happen.

“If any government after the next election is serious about protecting the environment then national parks have a role to play in that,” he said. “Areas such as Dorset desperately deserve it, but also desperately need it. They need that political backing.”

While Mr Brown insists “the flame is very much alive” when it comes to the Dorset National Park campaign, those in other areas feel they have had no choice but to give up.

Last month the Cotswolds National Landscape Board dropped its proposal to make the Cotswolds a National Park from its management plan for the area, telling local press the “Government does not view new designations as a priority issue”.

Meanwhile, the Chilterns Conservative Board has shifted its focus to campaigning for enhanced powers for AONBs after it said the Government made clear the creation of new National Parks “is off the table for the foreseeable future”.

It is one of two AONBs that Natural England is currently considering extending, while two new AONBs have also been proposed covering the Yorkshire Wolds and Cheshire Sandstone Ridge.

All this comes at a time of crisis for the UK’s existing national parks, which have seen their Government funding fall by 40 per cent in real terms over the past decade, according to the Campaign for National Parks (CNP).

“It’s not just that there’s no action on new national parks. There’s also a backwards step where they’re not protecting the ones that we do have and they’re not making sure that they’re delivering what we need from society,” says CNP chief executive Rose O’Neill.

In recent years national parks such as Dartmoor and Exmoor have been forced to sell off land and close visitor centres to balance the books.

Meanwhile, the landmark State of Nature report, which is compiled by more than 60 environmental NGOs and charities and published every four years, found last week that Britain’s national parks are not “up to scratch” when it comes to conservation of species.

“We’re seeing nature in natural parks no better than outside,” Ms O’Neill says.

“Next year is the 75th anniversary of the founding legislation for national parks. In the long term sense it’s been a very successful policy…but right now we’re seeing an undoing of that and unravelling of that.”

A Defra spokesperson said: “Protected landscapes contribute a great deal to the nation – supporting rural economies by attracting visitors, building partnerships with farmers and creating green jobs.

“That is why we announced additional funding to support National Parks earlier this year and, in line with the manifesto commitment, are in the process of considering two new Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty for designation and two existing ones for extension.”

The Conservatives and Labour were approached for comment.