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.

Yorkshire Dales see big increase in holiday accommodation plans

North Yorkshire’s national parks are seeing a boom in plans to create tourist accommodation as demand for holidays and staycations increases.

National park bosses said dozens of planning applications have been lodged with the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales authorities in recent weeks.

It follows concerns about the viability of foreign holidays and a massive increase in media awareness of the British landscape.

Chris France, director of planning for the moors authority, said while development proposals in general rose by 20 per cent last year, the first month of this year had seen an even sharper increase.

He said:

“Last year it was down to small-scale household applications as people were saving money and weren’t travelling, but this year it’s larger proposals as well and in particular a really significant increase from the hospitality and tourism accommodation sector.

“We are seeing a lot of small-scale works on farms, expansion of existing camping and caravanning sites, lots of glamping and holiday lodges. There’s been a move towards self-contained holiday accommodation where people don’t have to share amenity blocks.”

While the Dales has also seen numerous plans to make barns and fields more profitable, the latest accommodation plan submitted is for the conversion of Arkengarthdale’s former school, which its new owners hope to run guided walking holidays from.

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Upper Dales councillor Yvonne Peacock said she welcomed plans to create holiday cottages, but proposals which ended up as second homes were unhelpful for the communities as they were empty for much of the year.

She said:

“The important thing for the Dales is to get the balance right. We do need tourists, but don’t want the house prices to go so high that local people can’t afford to buy them.

“I wouldn’t like to see the Dales overrun with tourists like places such as the Lake District.”

Communities, particularly those in areas with high volumes of tourists, have started to react to the wave of proposals, warning the park authorities of the consequences of mass tourism.

However, planning bosses say while their policies recognise the importance of tourism for local economies, the national parks have the capacity to attract more people to enjoy their special qualities.

Mr France highlighted how the Moors national park had adopted policies last July that would protect against inappropriate tourism developments.

Pandemic sparks fresh concerns over Yorkshire Dales second homes

The impact of the pandemic has led to fresh calls for action on people buying second homes in the Yorkshire Dales.

A Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority meeting heard there was increasingly clear evidence that more people were buying properties as an investment rather than as somewhere to live and work.

Members were told 3,100 of the national park’s 12,000 properties were now holiday lets and second homes, and the number was rising.

The pandemic had accelerated the trend for rural relocations among wealthy and retired people, the meeting heard.

The concerns come three years after the park authority saw its proposal to bolster communities by imposing a five-fold increase in council tax on second home owners in the national park rejected.

Former Friends of the Dales chairman and park member Mark Corner told the meeting the pandemic had been “a game-changer to how society will be acting in future”.

He questioned whether the authority needed to reassess its strategies, such as promoting the area as somewhere for families to live and work.

He said:

“I see evidence of an increased interest in second homes. People wanting to find a safe space as a second home location.

“There’s been this huge awakening in closeness to nature, there’s been a recognition that remote working is feasible and is a way forward, there’s been pretty much devastation of our tourism economy.”

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Third generation farmer Allen Kirkbride said the village of Askrigg in Wensleydale was seeing a deluge of properties becoming second homes and holiday cottages.

He said:

“People are buying them as an investment and the vast majority are going to holiday lets. We are now starting to be over-run. It’s just pushing the prices up and up.

“In some way we have got to suppress this a little bit. It wasn’t a major problem five years ago, but it certainly is a major problem now.”

Veteran authority member Robert Heseltine added the authority was “as guilty as anyone in promoting Yorkshire Dales as a destination”.

Joining calls for fresh action, he said:

“We can only influence things if we have a leadership role.”

The authority’s chief executive, David Butterworth, warned members of the lack of support from surrounding councils the last time they tried to raise the second homes issue and said the market determined who bought properties for second homes.

He said:

“It looks in the early stages that there might be some acceleration in that. There is no support for any restraint on second homes from the county councils, district councils and I would suggest the local community.

“When the national park authority tried to show some leadership over this matter we got slapped down in an extraordinary manner by those bodies concerned. There wasn’t even support about discussing the matter with central government, which was all we wanted to do.”

 

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.