The head of Northumberland National Park has made a plea for fairer resources as the Government tries to encourage more people to visit the UK’s best-loved landscapes.
Around 1.7 million people a year visit the park but the Government wants to increase that number. In a response to the Designated Landscapes Review – which highlighted how national parks and designated areas of outstanding natural beauty are a vital resource for the nation – ministers set out aims for more action to fight climate change and restore nature, but also to ensure that these special places are visited by a more diverse range of people.
That ambition is shared by the organisations running national parks but many of those say that the gap between the aspirations and reality is down to funding.
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Northumberland National Park chief executive Tony Gates and park chair Jean Davidson point out that the annual Government grant for the authority will stay at £2.6m for the next three years, having been cut significantly between 2010 and 2016.
The park must now find £500,000 over the next three years to make up funding shortfalls, while facing pressure from factors such as rising inflation, pay awards and National Insurance rises. “We have already made all the efficiency savings we can and our staff levels are down to the bare minimum we need to operate,” said Mr Gates.
The park raises as much money as possible from visitor centre income, property rental, selling staff services and generating philanthropic contributions from trusts and other bodies. At the same time, the influx of visitors once pandemic restrictions were eased showed the importance of the park for public well-being.
Mr Gates said: “We already deliver a lot and we are being asked to deliver more, but we are not being properly resourced to do that. Concerns and frustration have not dampened our ambitions for one of the finest landscapes in the country.
“But there is a danger of raising public expectations, which we are not able to deliver. We are pleased that the Government has ambitions for national parks but we need to be given the resources to do the job.”
Earlier this year the Campaign for National Parks called for parks to be given the “resources” necessary to meet the aims being set by the Government.
And last week the chair of the Dartmoor National Park Authority said it was “disappointed that, despite saying national parks are a vital resource for all to enjoy, the Government is cutting our funding and thus making it harder for us to achieve their vision.”
