Yorkshire Dales bosses set to get pay rises of up to 20%Nature recovery strategy for North Yorkshire to be drawn upNorth Yorkshire housing boss criticises plans to relax national park planning rules

North Yorkshire’s housing boss has criticised government proposals to relax planning rules in national parks.

The government says allowing the conversion of barns, offices and cafes in national parks without planning approval would help boost the supply of housing.

However, Conservative councillor Simon Myers said potential changes outlined for the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill would not resolve any of the county’s housing issues.

Cllr Myers said the authority would consider inviting one of the government ministers behind the proposed legislation to visit North Yorkshire to view the impact granting permitted development rights on barns would have on areas such as Swaledale.

The criticism from Conservative-run North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for housing and leisure follows an equally condemnatory reaction from the leaders of the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales national park authorities.

The government is consulting on its plans to remove red tape around converting empty offices, agricultural buildings and retail premises, as well as make it easier to extend commercial buildings.

Government officials have stated they would only drop the proposals if “watertight” reasons not to require planning permission emerged.

In letters raising objections to the proposals, residents and parish councils said the government was not thinking about impacts on the wider public and claimed both national parks “will be damaged beyond repair and for ever if this comes into force”.

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Cllr Myers said the proposal was  “not thinking about what the purpose of the protected landscape is, as the Yorkshire Dales was about field barns”.

Cllr Myers questioned whether the legislation would do anything to ease the county’s housing crisis or boost affordable housing.

Referring to the proposal to allow barns to be converted into homes, Cllr Myers said: 

“It isn’t just some little field barn that is suddenly lived in.

“It’s the hardstanding, it’s all the hard wiring that has to go in. It’s cars parked outside and all the infrastructure. It doesn’t meet any affordable housing requirements, it doesn’t fulfil any need that we have.

“It would be really detrimental. You may as well say we give up protected landscapes.”

Parks authority rules out wolves reintroduction to Yorkshire Dales

A nature recovery strategy for the Yorkshire Dales will not lead to wolves and big cats roaming the national park, a meeting has been told, but it will set out to encourage action to help struggling species.

A meeting of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority heard agreeing an ecological plan was important as government and private funding available to farmers and landowners in the Dales was likely to be tied to environmental issues.

However, it also heard that a consensus had yet to be agreed between interest groups on several issues, such as the amount of trees which should be planted in the park.

Senior officers said it would not be possible to reach a resolution over all areas of contention, but as fresh government environmental policies were expected the strategy would not be finalised before June next year.

The strategy is being developed after studies identified how the park has significant areas of 17 different habitats and more than 100 different species that are UK priorities and have been facing national declines.

Yorkshire Dales.

Yorkshire Dales.

It also follows a commitment by interest groups in the park to making “the Yorkshire Dales home to the finest variety of wildlife in England”.

The park’s nationally important wildlife populations include black grouse,  rare plants such as bird’s-eye primrose, globeflower and baneberry, scarce invertebrates such as the northern brown argus butterfly and mammals, such as the red squirrel.

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It is hoped the strategy will help create networks for the park’s abundant wildlife to increase biodiversity in its surrounding areas.

The draft strategy proposes what officers have described as a “relatively modest” increase in the proportion of the park covered by native woodland  from 4.5% to 7% alongside creating nature recovery areas across 15% of the park.

Although both targets have been criticised as insufficently ambitious by some, several members raised concerns over calls to radically change the management of land, and in particular burning of the heather moorland to encourage regrowth and habitats for grouse, following proposals to phase it out.

Environmentalists have cited how a University of Leeds study concluded burning grouse moors degrades peatland habitat, releases climate-altering gases, reduces biodiversity and increases flood risk.

However, Wensleydale farmer Allen Kirkbride told the meeting long heather caused “chaos for square miles” when it caught fire. 

He said: 

“The idea of not burning heather is ludicrous.”

The authority’s outgoing member champion for the environment, Ian McPherson, said it faced a challenge in deciding how much of the national park should be set aside for nature recovery areas.

He said:

“What we are trying to do is get a good balance between the needs of environmentalists, farmers and land managers.”

Mr McPherson said while the possibility of reintroducing some native species to the area was being considered as part of the strategy it would not see “wolves and lynx and so on roaming the Yorkshire Dales”, but instead seek to raise awareness some species were at a low ebb.

Yorkshire Dales Park Authority approves ambitious £11.2m spend

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has approved its most ambitious programme of projects since being established in 1954.

But a meeting of the authority at Tennants in Leyburn heard that the £11.2 million spending plan for the coming financial year would be unsustainable in coming years as government funds had halved and it was being supported by new external funding and the extensive use of reserves.

Officers have warned that without a rise in its government grant the scale of the necessary budget cutbacks are likely to result in reduced services and work programmes from next year.

Referring to its government grant, the authority’s director of conservation and community Gary Smith told members:

“Essentially we are getting the same amount now as we were getting in 2010. What has changed is the amount of income we have generated from other sources.”

The meeting heard the authority’s spending this year would soar by some 30% over last year, and featured a huge increase in funding for land management activities, partly due to the authority’s success in attracting grants from a range of bodies.

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Members were told the Defra-funded Farming In Protected Landscapes and Woodland Trust’s Grow Back Greener initiatives were each supporting three authority staff as well as directly investing almost £2 million into the national park’s farms and businesses.

After being asked if the authority should be holding back more of its reserves its chief executive David Butterworth said using them was partly about wanting to deliver on the authority’s aims.

He added the decision to use the majority of its unallocated reserves also related to being “a little nervous about any government and whether they may claw back some reserves if they felt national park authorities were hoarding”.

Mr Butterworth said the authority wanted the government to provide greater longevity for funding projects, likening the authority’s efforts to attract grants from Whitehall to “chasing petals”. Mr Butterworth said:

“When those petals fall away you are left with nothing.”

Ahead of members passing the budget, recreation management member champion Nick Cotton: 

“It is quite extraordinary to think this budget is 50 per cent core grant and 50 per cent self-funding. It is massively different to anything we have experienced in the past. We are into unknown territory.

“We have got a budget ahead of us this year that we can all be proud of, delivering more than we have ever done. We’re keeping an eye on how things will change for next year.”

“We have got a budget ahead of us this year that we can all be proud of, delivering more than we have ever done. We’re keeping an eye on how things will change for next year.”

Concerns over dwindling campsites in Yorkshire Dales

Community leaders say they are becoming increasingly alarmed over the gentrification of campsites in the Yorkshire Dales, claiming camping pod, yurt, log cabin and static caravan developments are “pushing out” young people and those with smaller budgets from holidaying in the area.

Mounting concerns over the affordability for visitors of staying in the national park were raised as the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority agreed to launch enforcement action against over numerous unauthorised changes to the type of accommodation at Bainbridge Ings holiday park near Hawes.

A meeting of the authority’s planning committee in Grassington heard claims that soaring demand for staycations following the pandemic and higher profit margins from using land for glamping rather than camping had added to a rash of campsite closures.

Some members held their heads in their hands as they were shown aerial photographic evidence of how the long-established camping and caravan site at Bainbridge Ings had been extensively developed, with low landscape impact camping at the prominent location edged out.

Officers described a litany of unauthorised changes, retrospective approvals, and development in breach of planning conditions and contrary to Planning Inspectorate appeal decisions at the site.

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Several members responded by stating the holiday park’s owners were making a mockery of planning rules and urged officers to take “very vigorous” enforcement action.

Swaledale councillor Richard Good, a Duke of Edinburgh Award expedition assessor, said while there was “a definite need for camping in tents” in the national park the lack of campsites was becoming a serious problem.

He said: 

“With the increase of people coming into the Dales we have noticed over the last year or so a lot of those people will want to come in tents.”

The meeting heard sites that had hosted young campers for generations were now being developed with glamping facilities or static caravans for people with higher disposable incomes and that the area’s campsites had regularly been used by people who could not afford to stay elsewhere.

Speaking after the meeting, Wensleydale farmer John Amsden, chairman of Richmondshire District Council’s planning committee, said glamping pod and holiday lodge parks were “popping up like mushrooms” in and around the national park, but there was often little that planning authorities could do to stop them gaining consent.

He said: 

“Campsites that have people for a full week have just disappeared. There’s only Usha Gap and Muker.

“People who can only afford to camp are being pushed out. There seems to be nothing for the younger generation because many of them can’t afford to stay in log cabins and the like, which can be as expensive as renting a cottage, the prices for which have also gone up.

“I don’t think it’s about profits, I think it’s about greed.”

He added while many people were making large investments in creating holiday parks, there was a concern over what would happen to the landscapes and local economy when the boom in staycations subsided.

Bainbridge Ings campsite’s owner has been asked to comment about the enforcement action.

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.”

‘Bold and brave’ changes to prevent second homes in Dales

“Bold and brave” changes to planning rules that aim to prevent Yorkshire Dales houses becoming second homes and holiday lets have been approved.

Members of Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority signalled their determination to get to grips with the high-profile housing crisis across much of the 2,179 square km area and gave the green light to several key changes to the body’s forthcoming Local Plan blueprint.

The decision follows years of debate over which of the park’s estimated 2,000 traditional stone barns should be conserved and how to create sufficient new housing for local people to remain living in the area, parts of which have seen property prices rise by some 20% this year.

Earlier this year it emerged some 3,100 of the national park’s 12,000 properties had become holiday lets and second homes, and the number was rising, as the pandemic had accelerated a trend for rural relocations among wealthy and retired people.

The meeting heard although some 150 potential sites for housing were currently being considered, continuing to permit barn conversions in settlements, building groups and roadside locations could make a significant difference to housing supply.

However, members said in future the conversions should only be allowed for holiday letting as part of farm diversification schemes.

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Officers told the meeting extending the area restricting occupancy of new homes to local people to the whole of the national park and making the criteria for occupancy more favourable to attracting new households would benefit the local economy.

Other key changes agreed include that local occupancy restrictions could form part of the housing mix on larger sites and that a principal residence restriction should be introduced on new housing, to stop properties becoming holiday lets or second homes.

Ring-fencing homes for local people

A meeting of the authority, held at Tennants in Leyburn, heard that despite concerns permitting traditional agricultural building conversions over the last six years had seen only a small proportion of new homes for locals, relaxing the planning rules had boosted the park’s heritage.

Neil Heseltine, the authority’s chairman, described some of the recommendations as being “bold and brave”, as the meeting heard further action was needed to help increase the housing stock ring-fenced for local people.

Recreation champion for the authority, Nick Cotton, said while almost 200 barns had been permitted for residential conversion since the policy was extended in 2015, only 42, or 20% of them had been completed over the six years.

He said: 

“We are giving plenty of permissions, they just aren’t being taken up.”

Nevertheless, Jim Munday, the authority’s member champion for development management, said the policy over barns needed to remain largely unchanged because it had proved to be successful in conserving derelict traditional buildings.

He said barn conversions had contributed 40 per cent of the homes to the authority’s housing targets over the past four years.

Mr Munday said: 

“Let’s not forget 94 per cent of planning applications for barns have been approved. It’s that six per cent that aren’t that hit the headlines. I don’t know why.”

Flurry of Yorkshire Dales barn conversions raises call to close planning loophole

Developers are exploiting a planning loophole that allows them to convert traditional stone barns in the Yorkshire Dales, a meeting has heard.

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s audit committee called for the loophole to be closed to ease the national park’s housing crisis.

A policy was introduced six years ago to conserve the area’s historic agricultural buildings. It allows owners to choose whether the barns become homes for locals or holiday lets.

But although the dual policy has brought some barns back into use, the overwhelming majority of permitted conversions have been holiday lets, which could be sold for about £500,000, the meeting heard.

Of the 198 planning consents granted, only 28 per cent have had local occupancy or rural worker restrictions placed on them.

Previous policies had required local occupancy of most barn conversions, the only exception being where it was linked to farm diversification, in which case holiday letting was also permitted.

The meeting heard many locals were being priced out of buying barns, as even derelict ones with planning permission to be converted were now being marketed at between £150,000 and £200,000.

Officers added at £1,500 per square metre, the costs of converting barns were usually higher than new-builds.

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They said barn conversions should be of wider socio-economic benefit to the national park, where there are several ongoing initiatives aiming at attracting younger residents.

Too many holiday lets

The meeting comes ahead of the creation of a new Local Plan for development.

David Ireton, the North Yorkshire County councillor for Upper Craven said he had been a supporter of the dual policy, but had changed his mind.

He said the authority was set to examine whether a principle place of residence requirement should be brought in on the barns, “which would then allow new blood to come into the Dales with children”.

Mr Ireton said:

“It’s disappointing that so many of these have gone for holiday lets. We’re trying to encourage people to come and live in the Dales, which has got to be good for keeping schools and businesses open.”

Swaledale councillor Richard Good said giving approval to a barn conversion that enabled a Swaledale farming family to remain in the Dales had done much good for the authority’s image.

He added:

“Every time there is one that’s to be a holiday cottage there’s load of muttering, but what can we do about it? Not a great deal.”

The authority’s longest-serving member Robert Heseltine said the barns remained an opportunity to “give that indigenous population a chance to have a permanent home”:

“This is something this authority has to address. There’s been an explosion of tourist accommodation, particularly at the lower end with yurts such like, but tourism isn’t the be-all-and-end-all of the economy in any rural area. The need to bring young blood into communities is something that should never be ignored.”

Yorkshire Dales National Park reviews finances ahead of cuts

Yorkshire Dales National Park is to review its finances ahead of a potential cut to its government funding.

It’s considering limiting the resources it devotes to building conservation, its visitor centres and developing public transport services as it braces itself for another real terms cut in government funding.

Current indications are that the authority can expect another real-terms cut in its government grant for the next financial year.

While the six years to 2015 saw the authority dealt a 40 per cent real terms cut in core funding, government grants have been further eroded in recent years.

Members of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority are being asked to identify its most important areas of work to ensure it is clear where efforts should be directed for the next three years.

In a report to a full meeting of the authority on September 28, the authority’s deputy chief executive Gary Smith said setting priorities was challenging due to the 25 members having their own views, but the process would provide a framework to deliver services.

He said there had been “a clear recognition amongst the members” tasked with suggesting some priorities that some hard choices would have to be made.

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The report states planning has been added to the proposed list of priorities, which includes other areas such as farm conservation, where the authority will “strive for excellence”.

It adds that pumping resources into planning would help stimulate the development of housing and employment sites, attracting more working age households to live and work in the park.

However, it is proposed that public transport, building conservation and national park centres be given limited attention, meaning that unless external funding is found the authority will only do the minimum necessary to meet legal duties.

The report says making building conservation a limited priority would see a focus on supporting statutory functions, agri-environment scheme applications and chargeable services and the end of the programme of regular condition surveys of grade II listed buildings.

Dalesbus service

A Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority meeting heard uncertainty surrounded the future of Dalesbus services linking the national park to towns and cities from as far north as Darlington and Middlesbrough to Leeds and Bradford in the south.

Bruce McLeod, chairman of the Friends of the Dales, said the authority had an opportunity to address the pressing issues of climate change and increasing numbers of cars visiting the Dales.

However, it has been recommended that the authority restricts its public transport funding to its current grant of £5,000 a year to Dalesbus to subsidise summer Sunday bus services only, have no local liaison with users and not to actively promote public transport.