Yorkshire Dales brand key in austerity battle

Through the new approach, £161,300 was raised by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority in the last financial year, a new report shows, with its final accounts for the year showing a six-figure underspend against a budget which has been shrinking since 2010.

And the Authority’s ability to protect one of the country’s most precious landscapes is expected to be tested further when full details of how the Chancellor’s summer Budget will affect National Park funding are revealed.

David Butterworth, chief executive of the YDNPA, told The Yorkshire Post that he expected to secure more and more income via commercial avenues in the future to safeguard the Authority’s work in the Dales, saying that “four or five” sponsorship deals involving the Yorkshire Dales National Park brand were “in the pipeline”.

“It’s the hardest thing, the cultural change for people in the organisation, they have to be looking at how to generate funding for projects within the National Park Authority and I’m really pleased with how our staff have got hold of that,” Mr Butterworth said.

Members of the YDNPA meet today to officially agree their spending priorities for 2016/17, which have already been earmarked to cover four areas of its work: rights of way, volunteers and apprentices, land management and biodiversity, and development management.

But protecting the work and service of the YDNPA is an increasingly tough task, the report prepared for today’s meeting warns. The report states: “For 2016/17 the presumption was that the Authority’s grant settlement would remain at 15/16 levels. In light of the Chancellor’s Budget statement in July, that is looking like an optimistic forecast.

“The risk of further cuts - and the likelihood that exact details will not emerge until after Christmas - only make it more important that the Authority retains clear and consistent priorities as the starting point for allocating increasingly precious resources.”

While the austere climate has left the YDNPA seeking to make the most of commercial revenue, the money raised through the approach last year has meant price hikes for Dales visitors.

Public toilet charges are being piloted at the YDNPA car park in Grassington, car parking fees have been increased and so too have admission fees to the Dales Countryside Museum.

New planning fees are being charged for consultancy work and the Authority received an administration fee for taking on the management of the Pennine Way and Pennine Bridleway on behalf of the 21 local authorities through which the routes pass.

Since 2010, the YDNPA’s government grant has been cut by 38 per cent - to £4.07m - and cuts to other grants and reductions in bank interest on working capital total an additional £596,000.