National parks told to allow trade-off for homes

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Owen Paterson has suggested more building might be allowed in national parks in return for environmental improvements.
Environment Secretary Owen PatersonEnvironment Secretary Owen Paterson
Environment Secretary Owen Paterson

In a speech in Yorkshire, he called for a debate on “biodiversity offsetting” as a way of helping to unlock the economic potential of rural areas.

The system would allow developers or businesses wanting to expand the option of offsetting damage they might do by paying for measures elsewhere that have a positive impact.

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He said: “For too long we have allowed the lazy assumption that the environment and growth are incompatible objectives within the planning system.

“Offsetting gives us the chance to improve the way our planning system works. It gets round the long-running conundrum of how to grow the economy at the same time as improving the environment.

“It could provide real opportunities in our National Parks, where the necessary extension of a farm building could result in the enhancement of an existing habitat or the creation of a new one.”

Mr Paterson said he had seen such a system in operation in Australia where it had brought significant benefits.

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He told the Yorkshire Post: “I don’t want to protect the environment I want to improve it.

“At the moment what you get is tokenism. I can show you housing estates where there is a token pond surrounded by houses. The pond is miserable, its full of shopping baskets and rubbish and doesn’t do anything.

“It seriously devalues the development at the cost of the developer and is useless environmentally. Far better to let the developer make real money out of the development, round the whole thing off and give a substantial sum to enhance a real pond or build a new pond.

“My view is very clear, it is not black and white – either the economic project which generates jobs and wealth or preserving the environmental asset in aspic – it’s saying you can have both.”

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His comments coincide with a fierce debate over whether planning permissions should be given to plans for a potash mine in the North York Moors National Park although the Environment Secretary stressed he was not referring to that scheme.

In his speech, Mr Paterson said national parks had a value beyond the protection of the appearance of the countryside and were “integral to tourism, to the economy, to well being and to health”.

He added: “Economic growth and environmental improvement are not mutually exclusive. They are completely interdependent.

“A high quality, living and working countryside creates huge economic and environmental benefits for the country.

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Speaking in Easingwold at the Association of National Park Authorities Conference, Mr Paterson also promised to look at new ways of supporting hill farmers who cannot make ends meet through food production alone but play a key role in maintaining the countryside.

He said: “We recognise that the uplands face particular challenges and that there is a specific role for taxpayers’ money in compensating farmers for the work they do in enhancing the environment and providing public goods for which there is no market mechanism.

“I have asked my officials to look at how we might ensure that hill farmers are able to be more economically secure, continue to contribute to food production and remain custodians of our valuable uplands.”