Yorkshire Dales joins international dark sky list

The Yorkshire Dales received a tourism boost today when it was designated a dark sky reserve.

The International Dark-Sky Association accepted a joint application on behalf of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority and North York Moors National Parks for reserve status.

The accolade recognises the national parks, which combined cover 3500 km², have some of the darkest skies on the planet. It’s possible to see thousands of stars, the Milky Way, meteors and even the Northern Lights.

Besides global recognition, reserve status also provides an opportunity to promote locations, events and businesses.

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Councils, parishes, landowners and businesses campaigned for reserve status for several years.

Neil Heseltine, chair of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, said:

“Those lucky enough to live in the Yorkshire Dales National Park know what it is to experience the darkest skies.

“Designation provides a fantastic opportunity to encourage tourism in the autumn and winter months.”

Credit Jurij Stare, www.lightpollutionmap.info

Dark skies festival

The Yorkshire Dales will hold its first dark skies festival since joining the international list from February 12 to February 28.

Guided night walks, runs, bike rides, star camps, telescope experiences and more are among the ideas being discussed.

The festival will include virtual and in-person events after covid forced the last event to be staged online in October.

Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has encouraged businesses interested in being involved to get in touch.

Jim Bailey, chairman of the North York Moors National Park Authority said:

“It’s a wonderful thing to see a meteorite streak across the night sky or to look up and appreciate the brilliance of the Milky Way.

“From helping nocturnal wildlife to boosting off-season tourism, the North York Moors looks set to have a better, darker future.”

Yorkshire Dales National Park enjoys £350,000 post-lockdown boom

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has forecasted an extra £350,000 income for the year due to visitors flocking back after lockdown restrictions eased.

A financial progress report for the period from 1 April to 31 August said the authority revised its budget in May to assume a number of services would be seriously diminished or stopped altogether.

But the situation changed when car parks and visitor centres reopened later that month and visitors flooded to the national park to walk and enjoy the outdoors.

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The report said this had an ‘extremely positive’ effect on finances and there was now ‘no emerging risk of a financial shortfall’.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park

The report, which will be considered by the authority’s finance and resource committee next week, also revealed expenditure is £253,000 less than forecast.

It adds:

“Although the current projection is considerably more positive than had been allowed for in the revised budget, it does assume that the second half of 2020/21 will be unaffected by covid, both in terms of income (especially from visitors and planning applications) and expenditure on programmes.”

The full report can be read here. 

Yorkshire Dales National Park head hits out at new government guidelines

The head of Yorkshire Dales National Park has hit out at the Government after it gave people the green light to travel to beauty spots regardless of distance.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that as of today people can exercise as many times as they wish and drive to outdoor spaces “as long as they respect social distancing guidance while they are there.”

That advice does not appear to have gone down well with the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Yorkshire Water, or even the Conservative-run North Yorkshire County Council.

In yesterday’s daily update the council’s chief executive Richard Flinton made it clear that the “county is very much NOT open for visitors yet.”

“We look forward to welcoming everyone back when we are through this – but we are not there by some way yet.  We anticipate some of our beauty spots will be much busier and we will try to alleviate pressure where we can. We also encourage everyone to access open countryside close to their homes rather than head to these hot spots.”

The council warned that access to important hand washing facilities as well as toilets will be limited with most shops and restaurants and car parking remaining closed for the time being.

Yorkshire Water has also told the Stray Ferret that its car parks also remain closed and, despite the government advice, said that people should not travel to its beauty spots.

“Our reservoir car parks are still currently closed while we create a plan to adapt to changes in the government guidelines. Please don’t drive to our reservoirs as the car parks are still closed and inappropriate parking impacts our ability to access the reservoir safely as well as disrupting local residents.”

The chief executive of the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, David Butterworth, has been outspoken about his opposition to the new government guidelines.

He said that he has been, along with other organisations, advocating for a staged approach to avoid unnecessary travel and tension between visitors and local communities.

“However, that message has not prevailed and, as a public body, we are still expected to deliver the government’s message and manage the situation as professionally and sensitively as we can. We will therefore be opening the Authority-run car parks from today and will strive to open toilets as soon as possible; they will be deep cleaned and have new cleaning regimes implemented.”

What has it been like at the district’s beauty spots since the new guidelines? By midday, more than 50 cars were parked on the verges around Swinsty reservoir today. It was a similar picture at Thruscross.