Fighting for the countryside

NATIONAL parks are integral to Yorkshire’s identity. Whether bathed in summer sunlight or wreathed in snow, as many areas of them were at the weekend, their unrivalled natural beauty has attracted people from across Britain for many years. These visitors are vital to the livelihoods of thousands of farmers, shopkeepers and café-owners. As such, anything that discourages them from coming here must be a cause for deep concern.

The scale of cuts being imposed must be resisted. Visitor centres, rights of way and wildlife conservation, all vital parts of the parks experience, will be degraded if these plans go ahead and the warning by David Butterworth, chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, that some areas could be left to “go by the wayside” will rightly alarm rural communities.

These cuts risk harming the financial health of the region, its cultural landscape and its natural environment.

They also represent a classic example of a false economy. The cuts expected to fall on the Yorkshire Dales and on the North York Moors will barely scratch the surface of Britain’s deficit yet they risk creating a devastating “ripple effect” in the countryside, with less well used footpaths left to decay and decline, deterring visitors from spending time there.

Such a salami-slicing of budgets fails to recognise the importance of tourism to this region and the industry will be undermined if conditions decline.

If park authorities need to change, as Julian Smith, the Conservative MP for Skipton and Ripon MP has claimed, then it is questionable whether Treasury-led cuts are the way to do it. They create the impression that savings are being made with reforms introduced as a Government afterthought. The debacle of the coalition’s planned privatisation of England’s forests, which ended in an embarrassing climbdown last week, made Ministers look like they are developing rural policy on the hoof.

Together, these policies have the hallmark of a Westminster elite that knows little of the world beyond the M25. To them, our ancient parks and forests may be little more than a cultural nicety, but to many people in Yorkshire and beyond, they are a vital branch of our economy and environment.