Custodians of the Yorkshire Dales National Park have questioned whether its main purposes need to change to help tackle climate change.
A meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority heard the organisation was expected to lead the way over tackling climate change, but a consultants’ study found the level of emissions generated by visitors were similar to those created by its residents.
The meeting heard that mainly due to the lack of public transport, visitors generated about two-thirds of residents’ emissions by just travelling to the area and returning home.
However, the carbon footprint of the residents of the national park is estimated to be around 18 per cent higher than the UK average.
The residents’ emissions from flying are estimated to be around 48 per cent higher than for an average UK resident.
Member champion for the natural environment Mark Corner told the meeting although the park authority could not dictate how visitors travelled to and from the park, it could encourage greener transport.
He said:
“Once drivers get to the park they have a very limited ability to get round other than the cars they come in. We need to look again at our public transport approach.”
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Nick Cotton, the authority’s recreation management member champion, questioned whether national parks should continue to promote themselves as international destinations given the large volumes of greenhouse gases that air travel generates.
He said:
“If we are saying come to beautiful Britain to the wealthy, developing countries in the Far East then aren’t we shooting ourselves in the foot a bit because we are actually encouraging more flights and more greenhouse gas emissions.”
Another member, Kevin Frea, called for the authority to relook at alternative ways of travelling to and around the park, pointing out how 36% of the park’s carbon emissions related to car travel.
Richard Foster, the leader of Craven District Council, also questioned whether it was right for the park be promoted nationally and internationally, through events such as the Tour de Yorkshire cycling race.
In response, the authority’s chief executive David Butterworth said while the authority had some influence on the park, it was not among the top five organisations that could make significant changes.
He said the national park was still being promoted to British and foreign tourists because the law had not caught up with the reality of climate change.
Mr Butterworth said he believed there was a contradiction between needing to tackle climate change and national parks’ statutory purposes.
He said he was optimistic the new government would review whether the climate change and nature emergencies should be enshrined in national parks’ main purposes.
Mr Butterworth told the meeting:
“The law says national park authorities exist to promote understanding and enjoyment. We have taken that over 50 years to mean that means promoting visitor numbers.”
He said national parks were in need of “better and stricter guidance” from central government over how they should be responding to climate change.
County council set to reject climate change action appealNorth Yorkshire County Council looks poised to dismiss moves by Green and Liberal Democrat councillors to accelerate the response to thr climate change and biodiversity crises, claiming they could be counter-productive.
The council’s Conservative-run executive will consider two environmental notices of motion that councillors were prevented from debating at a full council meeting in July, with the authority’s chairman instead opting to refer the proposals to its cabinet members.
Both motions propose the establishment of a new committee specifically to scrutinise the council’s progress and leadership in tackling climate change and establishing biodiversity plans to ensure oversight of the collective ambition of the council.
Since losing its overwhelming majority at the May elections, the Tory-led council has been facing mounting pressure, particularly from the Liberal Democrat and Green groups, to redouble its climate change and biodiversity efforts and allow opposition councillors to play a greater role in shaping such policies.
An officers’ report to the executive states the creation of a new scrutiny committee would take the number of such forums at the council to seven.
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It adds the council’s scrutiny function is under review as part of the establishment of a new unitary authority and recommendations would be brought before all elected members later this year.
One of the motions also calls for the creation of a new executive member to reflect the scale of the job, but the officers’ report highlights the executive already has the maximum number of members allowed under the county council’s constitution.
Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Bryn Griffiths, who represents Stokesley, said the officers’ report failed to fully address the high priority and action needed to effectively deal with climate change and the ecological emergency in North Yorkshire.
He said:
“I think the points we put forward to deal with that are still valid and worthwhile objectives that the council should be taking on board and should be fully debated by the full council.”
The council’s Conservative leader, Cllr Carl Les said the executive’s debate and recommendations to the next full meeting of the authority in November would focus on how the authority could best manage the impacts of climate change.
He said:
“It is a hugely important issue to us. It seems to me that the Greens and Lib Dems are suggesting we have to have a special executive member and a special scrutiny committee, but we believe the climate change and biodiversity issues cut across everything that we do.
“The approach that we are taking by embedding it into everything we are doing, so every report we produce now examines the climate change impact, is better.”
When asked if the decision to reject specialist climate change roles and groups at the council was politically-fuelled, Cllr Les said:
Harrogate district to get 20 new electric vehicle chargepoints“Not at all. All our scrutiny committees have the ability to look at climate change implications.
“If anything they have more influence and control over what we are doing than what is being proposed.”
North Yorkshire is set to receive 140 new chargepoints for electric vehicles under a scheme announced today by the Department for Transport.
The county’s seven districts, including Harrogate, will each get 20 chargers.
The chargepoints will installed at on-street locations and at larger petrol-station charging hubs.
It is hoped the move will give drivers without home chargers more confidence to switch to electric, and reduce ‘range anxiety’ among existing electric vehicle users by helping to ensure motorists are never far from a chargepoint.
North Yorkshire County Council was awarded the funding today.
The council previously suggested that Markington, Pateley Bridge and Conyngham Hall in Knaresborough could receive new chargepoints in the Harrogate district. But it has yet to confirm the locations after today’s news.
Councillor Greg White, the council’s executive member for climate change, welcomed the funding. He said:
“The switch to electric vehicles is necessary as North Yorkshire moves towards becoming carbon zero, but the rural nature of the county presents some significant challenges.
“We worked hard to come up with an innovate scheme which will begin to provide the answers motorists need if they are to have the confidence to go electric.”
The chargers are part of the new Local EV Infrastructure (LEVI) pilot scheme where the council and industry work in partnership.
Companies are putting £200,000 towards the scheme.

The council will install more electric chargers (photo: Andrew Roberts/Unsplash)
Harrogate currently has six public charging points – though the type and number of charging points varies between each station.
Knaresborough currently has two charging points whilst Ripon has four.
National plans
North Yorkshire is one of the first nine areas to receive funding.
A total of £20 million has been allocated for the pilot scheme nationally.
The government plans to eventually invest £450 million into the scheme nationwide.
It intends to grow the network of charging points around the country with more than 1,000 new charging stations set to be installed.
Decarbonisation minister Trudy Harrison said:
Councillors delay North Yorkshire climate change proposals“We want to expand and grow our world-leading network of EV chargepoints, working closely with industry and local government, making it even easier for those without driveways to charge their electric vehicles and support the switch to cleaner travel.”
North Yorkshire councillors have postponed moves aiming to ensure robust and immediate actions are taken to tackle the climate change and biodiversity crises for about four months.
A meeting of North Yorkshire County Council saw a majority of elected members agree motions for further environmental measures should be referred to the council’s executive and constitutional working group for consideration.
Liberal Democrat, Independent, Green and Liberal councillors had proposed the authority establish a dedicated scrutiny committee, an executive member to oversee climate change and the development of a biodiversity action plan.
The calls came just days after the council’s executive declared a climate emergency, several years after numerous neighbouring councils, following mounting pressure from councillors.
Coordinator of the council’s Green Party group, Cllr Andy Brown, said while the executive’s recent decision to declare a climate emergency was welcome, “we all know good intent needs a clear, costed, timed action plan” to be approved by the same councillors.
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He added a scrutiny committee was needed as it was the role of councillors to examine plans to tackle climate change and that residents suffering record high temperatures would struggle to understand why the authority was not taking more immediate action.
Cllr Brown said:
“Let’s be honest, how does it look if we say we declared an emergency, but say we’re only going to discuss the scrutiny arrangements in about four months’ time and we may not discuss them at all or we may not set up any scrutiny yet because we think our organisation is more important.
“How are we going to explain that to the people of Tadcaster who lost their bridge for so long, how are we going to explain that to people in Richmondshire who suffered those appalling floods that damaged their livelihoods?”
The authority’s chairman, Cllr Margaret Atkinson, who is tasked with controlling debates at full meetings of the authority, told the chamber the temperatures of the past few days had underlined the need to tackle climate change.
However, she said it was important the authority gave the motions “appropriate consideration”.
She added the council’s staff were already under a lot of pressure due to local government reorganisation.
The council’s deputy leader, Cllr Gareth Dadd, said the proposals had implications, such as financial ones, that needed to be fully understood, with a report by officers, before the motions could be properly considered.
He said it was possible creating an extra scrutiny committee could dilute the efforts of the authority’s existing scrutiny committees for matters ranging from health to transport.
Cllr Dadd said:
Harrogate climate change scientist warns of more extreme heatwaves“Policy and organisational issues are often worse for being delivered on the hoof. Good policy may well take a little bit longer to deliver.”
Harrogate climate scientist Professor Piers Forster has warned extreme heatwaves could be common in just 10 years due to climate change.
Prof Forster, who has lived in the town since 2005, was one of the main authors of last year’s “code red for humanity” climate change report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on behalf of the United Nations.
The report was discussed around the globe and warned of climate catastrophe unless action is taken now.
Prof Forster has spent his career analysing the effects of climate change and is a director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate and professor of physical climate change at the University of Leeds.
The weather in Harrogate is set to peak at 38 degrees tomorrow, breaking all-time records. Prof Forster told the Stray Ferret why we are currently experiencing this extreme weather:
“The heatwave comes from a combination of a blast of hot air from Europe blowing over very dry soil. Global warming plays a big part in both these factors. Wild fires are raging across southern Europe with temperatures approaching 50 degrees centigrade in parts of Portugal.
“Climate change is warming the land and ocean, and has brought extended drought conditions to much of Europe. This means that heatwaves are over two degree more intense than they would otherwise be and are occurring much more often. We have some of the longest records in the UK, we can use these to estimate how likely such as heatwave is.”
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Many climate change skeptics have pointed to the UK heatwave of 1976, when temperatures peaked at 35.9 degrees during one day in Cheltenham. But this was five degrees lower than what is forecast for parts of England tomorrow.
Prof Forster said the weather this week is particularly unusual but will become more common unless countries around the world take action to reach net zero.
He added:
“One hundred years ago a heatwave such as this would have occurred once every 300 years, now it’s every 15 years. In a decade or so this will be a typical summer. The science is clear that these heatwaves will worsen until the UK and every other country In the world has reached net zero emissions: all sectors of every economy will need to decarbonise.
“Given the current crises in the world this seems like a tall ask but there is no other way. Wheat dies if it experiences temperatures of 34C or more at the time of flowering – this is not a world we want our children growing up in.”
Grim future ‘not a given’
Today, trains from Harrogate to London have been cancelled, Knaresborough Town FC has called off a match and schools, care homes and businesses are putting measures in place to protect vulnerable people from the extreme heat.
Prof Forster said we will have to learn to adapt to more heatwaves but a “grim future” is not guaranteed if policymakers work to urgently cut emissions.
He added:
Northern Powergrid criticised over ‘unacceptable’ Storm Arwen failings“I don’t think people realise how much the UK’s climate will change over the next two decades: we are going to have to adapt our behaviour, homes, work places, hospitals, schools, roads and trains to such hot days. Expect wild fires and spending days in doors to avoid bad air quality.
“Our research at the University of Leeds shows that this grim future is not a given: cutting emissions urgently and strongly now can slow the rate of warming, giving societies time to adapt. We need to take this heatwave seriously: adjust your day accordingly, stay safe and hydrated.”
Energy regulator Ofgem has today published a damning report into how Northern Powergrid handled Storm Arwen.
The storm battered the Harrogate district and much of the UK in November and caused widespread disruption to homes and businesses. Over one million customers lost power as winds hit 98mph.
The storm struck during bitterly cold weather and left some rural homes in the district, including in Beckwithshaw and parts of Nidderdale, unable to cook or heat their homes.
Northern Powergrid is the company responsible for the electricity distribution network across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Six-month review
Ofgem published its findings after a six-month review into how Northern Powergrid, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and Electricity North West responded to the storm.
The review focused on whether the power outages could have been prevented and whether correct and timely information was given to customers.

A fallen tree in Jennyfields during the storm.
It also looked at whether power was restored quickly enough and how customers were supported after the storm including the processing of compensation payments.
It found some households remained off power for an “unacceptable” amount of time, received poor communication from their network operator and compensation payments took too long.
It highlighted Northern Powergrid in particular for not contacting vulnerable customers prior to the storm.
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Below standards
The report warned Northern Powergrid that the performance at its call centre fell below standards, which could be a breach of licence conditions.
It also suggested that some of the electricity poles that fell onto power lines were susceptible to damage because of their age, although it said this needs further investigation.
Jonathan Brearley, chief executive of Ofgem, said:
“The frequency of extreme weather events is only set to increase so it is really important that industry, and those involved more widely, learn from Storm Arwen to better respond in future.”
The three energy firms have already agreed to pay nearly £30m in compensation to affected customers but following the report, they have agreed to pay a further £10.3m.
Read the report in full here.
Northern Powergrid’s response
Phil Jones, chief executive of Northern Powergrid, has published a full response to the Ofgem report on its website.
Mr Jones said:
Campaigner demands council pension fund ‘immediately offloads’ fossil fuel investments“As we said at the time, we understand how challenging Storm Arwen was for our customers and we are sorry for the difficulty and disruption it caused to their lives. We appreciate the patience that they showed and the dedication of our team who worked through some of the most difficult conditions we have ever faced.
“The extreme nature of the event meant we learned some difficult lessons. It highlighted some limitations in our systems and showed us things we can do to be able to provide a stronger response to more extreme storms. We are committed to doing those things to make the communities that we serve more resilient to extreme weather events.”
An environmentalist has told councillors the North Yorkshire Pension Fund should “immediately offload” its investments in fossil fuel firms.
The fund receives contributions from staff at 160 firms, plus past and present public sector workers, and is worth £4.9bn.
The Stray Ferret revealed in January that the fund holds over £70m in climate-damaging companies, such as Shell and BP.
Richard Tassell, of Fossil Free North Yorkshire, told a meeting of the fund’s committee at County Hall in Northallerton that the world has “just 30 months” to begin radical changes.
Mr Tassell, a former staff member of both York and North Yorkshire authorities, said although the fund was working to invest more in renewable energy firms, this was “an entirely inadequate response to the scale of the crisis we are facing”.
He told the committee:
“We are asking that the council actively and urgently consider divesting from fossil fuel investments currently held by our pension fund and seek reinvestments in renewable projects.
“The Ukrainian invasion by Russia has highlighted the precarious nature of western countries’ energy supplies and when set against the developments in renewables over the past five years to a point where this technology is cheaper than coal, gas and oil. We must move away from those fuels at pace.”
He called for the committee to set time-specific targets to end fossil fuel investments and consult with all the pension fund’s members.
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A spokesman for the committee did not respond to either of the calls, but said getting rid of investments in fossil fuel firms immediately may exacerbate climate change.
The spokesman told the meeting the fund had been reducing its fossil fuel-related holdings in recent years and they now stood at less than 1%, which was “very low compared with just about every other local authority fund”.
He added:
“We have taken a view that we favour engagement over divestment from oil and gas companies. The reason for this is that we believe through engagement we can influence the direction of travel of these companies towards a low carbon economy.
“We also believe that if we were to sell the shares they would be more likely to be acquired by investors that would not have those responsible investment beliefs at their heart.”
He said the committee had been “quite ambitious” in terms of putting more money into low carbon investments and renewable investments.
Councillor John Weighell, the committee’s chairman, told Mr Tassell:
Coalition showcases election candidates’ views on climate change“I think the main difference between us may be not of the end result, but timing. We will get to the position that you want us to, but not as quickly as you would want us to.”
An ensemble of environmental groups has created an online platform where people can see the North Yorkshire Council election candidates’ views on climate change.
North Yorkshire Climate Coalition hopes it will provide clarity to voters over key issues facing the county such as fracking and pollution.
In what is believed to be the first pre-election survey of its kind in the county, all the candidates contesting to serve a five-year term on the new unitary authority have been asked to respond to up to ten questions.
The coalition represents a wide range of community-based interest associations spread across the county, such as Brandsby Women’s Institute, Thirsk Churches Ecology Group, Clapham Sustainability Group and Zero Carbon Harrogate, to CPRE North and East Yorkshire, Thirsk Friends of the Earth and climate action groups for Stokesley, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Nidderdale and Northallerton.
The incoming 90 councillors will make decisions over the extent to which the county’s greenfield sites should be developed – an issue which has generated significant debate in the Harrogate district.
The groups hopes it will help focus candidates’ minds on the damage being caused to the natural world.
On a website launched this week, nyclimatecoalition.org, voters can view how and whether candidates in each of the 89 divisions responded to questions such as what role the region should play in creating energy from onshore wind and solar farms and fracking.
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Candidates were also being challenged to state how the new council should tackle the county’s biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – transport, agriculture and domestic energy.
David Tonge, of Thirsk Friends of the Earth said numerous candidates had already responded to the survey.
He said:
APS partners with Harrogate College on electric car charging course“In my view it doesn’t look good if you can’t be bothered to respond to something that’s so much in the news at the moment, but candidates are not used to this type of survey.
“What we are trying to achieve is raise the profile of environment and climate issues and get candidates to understand these are important positions. They are going to be deciding on big issues such as the decarbonisation of North Yorkshire, so they need to be well informed.
“This is about raising the bar of our ambition, since the new council will have to rapidly steer a whole regional economy away from fossil fuels in order to meet our share of the national target of a 68 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. That’s a gigantic challenge and a huge responsibility.”
APS, which runs a national electric vehicle charger repair and maintenance service in Harrogate, has partnered with Harrogate College to set up a training and recruitment programme.
Harrogate College will be introducing the new course to help the borough transition to electric cars.
Principal Danny Wild of Harrogate College said:
“We are determined to support emerging green technologies and have been working closely with local firms so we can provide the appropriately skilled, work-ready students they need.
“The electric vehicle sector is a rapidly growing one that represents a fantastic opportunity for both our students and local businesses.”
Despite having more electric vehicles than any other district in North Yorkshire, the Stray Ferret recently reported how Harrogate is one of the ‘worst prepared areas in the UK’ for transitioning to electric vehicles.
It was estimated that the borough had just one charging point for every 134 electric or hybrid cars.
However, APS Business Development Manager, John Dyson, defended the situation.
He said:
“It is ironic that Harrogate has been criticised so strongly for a lack of action over installing electric vehicle chargers when there actually is so much going on behind the scenes.
“Recent announcements by Transdev, that all Harrogate buses are to be electrified, and Harrogate Borough Council, which is to install 34 charge points in local car parks, gives a taste of just what is on its way.”
The level 3 award in the Installation and Commissioning of Electric Vehicle Charging Equipment will start in September at Harrogate College.
Linley & Simpson fundraise for children’s hospice

In training (from left) Callum Collbeck, Pawel Ziemak, Freddie Purdy, Adam Hughes and Josh Boocock
Linley & Simpson will start a year of fund-raising challenges in support of Martin’s House Children’s Hospice.
The estate agent, which has branches in Ripon and Wetherby, is marking its 25th anniversary by aiming to raise £25,000 for Martin House, based at Boston Spa.
The team has previously managed to raise £100,000 in support of the charity.
As part of the fundraise, they will abseil 50ft down the Cow and Calf rocks at Ilkley Moor. The following week, 40 colleagues will also face a 12k course of mud, ice and obstacles.
Emily Wilkinson, Wetherby Branch Manager at Linley & Simpson, said:
“The work of Martin House has touched the lives of our people in many ways, and we are pleased to be able to ‘give back’ through this initial set of events as well as a host of others that are in the pipeline.”
The challenge begins on June 16, with more information available on the website.
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Yorkshire Dales park authority sets out £11.2m budget spend
The most ambitious spending programme in a national park authority’s 68-year history has been proposed to “grasp the nettle” on pressing issues such as climate change, improving biodiversity and securing the future of farms.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s finance committee will on Tuesday consider spending £11.2 million in the coming financial year, supported by new external funding and the use of £670,000 of its dwindling reserves, to expand its priority programmes.
An officer’s report to the meeting warns the authority’s level of spending is unsustainable after the coming year and it was “nearing the crunch-point where action is needed” over “looming long-term deficits”.
It states:
“It should be understood the scale of the necessary budget adjustment is likely to require a reduction in our services and work programmes from 2023/24 onwards.”
The report states while the authority’s income generation performance, particularly in relation to external funding bids, remains very strong, it is facing ongoing cuts to the value of its core government grant, inflation and the need to pay 143 full-time equivalent staff, compared to 127 in 2009, the year before the value of the government grant started falling.
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It states the proposed budget will enable the authority to fund and advise farmers and landowners to support high nature value farming, support farmers to take-up national agri-environment schemes and deliver Natural England’s ‘Catchment Sensitive Farming’ initiative.
Other key projects featured in the budget include launching a farm and estates open day programme in the coming months and pressing on with a multi-million pound programme supporting high nature value farming systems to deliver nature recovery on a grand scale across Swaledale and Upper Teesdale.
The extra spending will also be used to support the conservation of the natural and cultural heritage of several commons in the park and implementing the government’s proposed Farming in Protected Landscapes programme to support upland farmers to improve the natural environment, cultural heritage and public access on their land.
The authority’s chairman, Neil Heseltine, said the time was right to be ambitious and grasp the nettle of urgent issues.
He said:
“We’ve prepared a one-year budget and made a calculated judgement that the timing is right in terms of climate, nature’s recovery and the time is right for farming which is going through a transition.
“The reserves are there for times like this. We’re saying let’s try and make it happen now, let’s be positive and show to government we are right behind them in their objectives, whether it be farming, climate or whatever, but we do need resources to deliver that in the long-term.”
Mr Heseltine said the authority would need more money going forward, and while national parks had played an important role for people’s health and wellbeing in the bounce back from lockdown, there needed to be recognition of that in funding terms.
He said:
“We have to put measures in place which are good for our farming families, our farming businesses and our farming communities.
“There’s quite a lot of confusion going on in farming communities at the moment and we can use this ambition to help those communities as they are so important to us as a national park and so important to the climate and nature aspirations of both ourselves and government.”