Park boss slams planning changes

Ministers are spearheading a drive to streamline planning regulations, which they claim will slash bureaucracy and ensure critically needed affordable homes are built while also attracting new enterprise to the countryside.

But the North York Moors National Park Authority’s director of planning, Chris France, has launched a broadside on the proposed reforms and hit back at accusations by Government Ministers that rural communities were in danger of becoming “museum pieces” if they did not embrace the changes.

Mr France highlighted statistics which have shown national park authorities approve about 89 per cent of planning applications – three per cent higher than other planning authorities.

But he warned a raft of draft planning rules that will allow residents to transform farm buildings or empty premises which are not in prime retail locations, into homes, nurseries and free schools would have a dramatic impact on the natural environment.

Mr France said: “We have made every effort to ensure that the national park remains a living and breathing landscape. There is a misguided perception from the Government that these planning reforms are needed, but these views are simply not based on fact.

“We may be guilty of not promoting all the work that is undertaken in the national park, and this is perhaps something that we need to address. I would welcome an open dialogue with the Government to ensure that all that can be done to protect national parks is being done.”

Mr France admitted the national park authority has been “slightly slower” in dealing with planning applications that other planning authorities, but stressed the longer timescales are due to a need to protect the landscapes.

Planning Minister Nick Boles has hinted the Government would not be adverse to a further relaxation of planning laws to allow more development within national park boundaries.

Responding to a question in Parliament last month, the Tory MP claimed he was worried about “the danger of making rural communities into museum pieces where they are not so much protected as embalmed”.

Members of the influential Campaign for National Parks have warned that schemes aiming to exploit minerals and gas across vast swathes of Britain’s countryside are placing national parks under the greatest threat since they were created more than half-a-century ago.

The charity’s chairwoman, Anne Robinson, confirmed she is due to meet with Lord de Mauley, a minister at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), this autumn to discuss heightening concerns over the future of national parks.

She said: “We need to discuss the very real threat to our national parks. They are so important not just for the economic revival of the country, but also the health and well-being of society. They may be facing an uncertain future, but we will simply not let them be lost – and neither will the public.”

But the intense development pressures come as national park authorities are facing up to massive cuts in funding from the Government.

As revealed by the Yorkshire Post last week, the North York Moors National Park Authority’s chief executive, Andy Wilson, has warned “extremely tough decisions” will have to be made and key services affected owing to an unexpected six-figure bill to deal with delays to a proposed £1bn mine plan.

A series of delays has meant a revised planning application is now not expected to be submitted until next summer due to growing concerns over the project’s impact on the landscape.

Mr Wilson confirmed the total cost of dealing with the current planning application had reached £600,000 – although the bill is set to rise “by a very substantial figure”. The added financial burden comes as the national park authority’s grant from the Government is set to fall from £5.1m in 2011/12 to £4.3m by 2014/15.

DEFRA officials said that a balance has to be found between protecting the environment and attracting new enterprise to rural areas.

A spokeswoman said: “England’s national parks contribute more than £6bn to the economy every year, which is the same as the aerospace industry. We want to see rural areas contributing to and benefitting from that growth, whilst ensuring our valued countryside remains protected.”

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