National park chiefs warn of 'catastrophic' cuts in region

National parks are already wrestling with a five per cent budget cut imposed at this year's emergency Budget and now both the Yorkshire Dales National Park and the North York Moors National Park are preparing for further reductions, leading to fears the service they provide in planning, conservation and ranger work will have to be seriously downgraded.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's chief executive David Butterworth said in a worst-case scenario up to 2m could be cut from its budget, something he said would be "catastrophic".

He warned it was "inconceivable" that it could avoid shedding jobs and scaling back services and there would have to be a culture change to move from aiming to deliver services that were excellent to services that were merely "good enough".

"It will be devastating," he said. "Thirty five per cent out of our budget would mean we would have to have a complete re-evaluation of everything we do and what how we do it.

"We would need to make fundamental decisions about stopping doing some things and it is difficult to tell what they are at the moment.

"It is a catastrophic nightmare scenario."

Mr Butterworth said while the true scale of cuts was yet to be confirmed he will be asking board members and officers to begin looking into how the authority might cope with future cuts.

The board is to meet today to discuss the issue.

Already the grip of cuts is being felt in the area, after the Dales body reached its five per cent budget cut by draining its Opportunities Fund, money intended for use on future projects such as renewable energy schemes.

"This will involve a slowing down in these projects rather than stopping them," he said. "We are one of the best performing national parks in the country and have so many committed members and staff who really give their all to the national park.

"The quality of what they produce has been fantastic and it seems that in the rush for these budget cuts fantastic programmes and fantastic projects produced by really excellent staff could be swept away and I think that is terrible."

Among the options being considered are increasing joint-working with other bodies, raising the possibility of the park authorities sharing services with local authorities to help cut costs.

Coun John Blackie, of North Yorkshire County Council, who sits on the Dales national park authority, said any cuts would affect employment in the area.

"A 35 per cent cut in Government funding would mean the end of the park as we know it.

"One has to be seriously concerned for the quality of services we get in the future – they are expecting us to do less with less."

Andy Wilson, chief executive of the North York Moors National Park, said his organisation was having to make "urgent plans" to deal with this year's five per cent cut and that difficult decisions lay ahead as to how it would weather any further budget cuts.

He said: "Nothing has been confirmed about the future but clearly we need to do a lot of fundamental thinking about who we will deal with it and what out priorities will be, as well as whether we can do things with voluntary measures or compulsory measures further along the line – we are at an early stage of that.

"We will see how with less money we can maintain our work with communities. It would be unfair to speculate but we are certainly looking at big changes ahead."

Dark clouds on horizon

n National Park Authorities looking at budget cuts of up to 35 per cent

n Services may have to be shared with local authorities and other

public bodies to save cash

n One park authority boss calls cuts "the biggest challenge we have ever faced"