North York Moors National Park can tap into renewed interest in outdoors - Yorkshire Post Letters

I READ with much interest the report about a five-year strategy and business plan for the North York Moors.

The legacy of Covid-19 has resulted in more interest in outdoor recreation from national parks to urban parks where people feel more relaxed amongst trees and wildlife.

Park authorities have the opportunity to tap into this new resource of volunteers to assist in the development and management of parks, from planting young trees to creating new footpaths.

Senior managers of parks and open spaces should be concerned about popularity of sites in national parks in Yorkshire, Cumbria and Cornwall.

Most weekend newspaper supplements have the best 20 favourite walks around the UK – many are in national parks, putting even more pressure on these often fragile landscape caused by over usage.

Educating the public about the make up of these natural landscapes and how they need to be managed for future generations is an essential ‘management tool’.

Stronger business cases need to be developed to get more funding for conservation projects, as the competition from other organisations becomes more apparent.

Meanwhile the shortage of affordable housing in villages like Ingleby Arncliffe and Ingleby Cross could be addressed if Hambleton District Council built houses for rent for local people.

This could be a pioneering project for the new super council, North Yorkshire, which could be ‘rolled out’ across the former seven district council areas. As local plans across North

Yorkshire are being developed, affordable housing must be a priority along with the provision for generating local jobs for local people.