Cuts to Park’s board ‘is a loss of democracy’

Fear that residents will be denied a voice

A FORMER local authority leader has described proposals to overhaul the governance of one of the country’s largest national parks by cutting the number of elected councillors who make decisions as “a loss of democracy”.

Councillor Yvonne Peacock said she fears many residents of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and particularly those in the Richmondshire and North Yorkshire parts of the area, will be under-represented if the park authority’s proposals to cut its board from 25 to 16 from April 2021 are passed at the full authority meeting on March 31.

Coun Peacock will launch a notice of motion at a meeting of Richmondshire District Council this week with the aim of pressuring the park authority to maintain the membership at 25 or limit the reduction.

She said the changes would be grossly unfair as they would see six North Yorkshire members represent 2,689 residents each, four Cumbria members represent 1,769 residents each and two Lancashire members represent just 139 residents each, alongside four Government-appointed members.

Under the proposals, Richmondshire would be the least well represented area, with one member per 2,237 population.

Coun Peacock said residents of the park had the same right as those living elsewhere to have a

representative they could contact over issues such as planning.

She said: “I feel very strongly we are losing our democracy.”

The leader of North Yorkshire County Council, Councillor Carl

Councillor Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

Les, said the proposals were a retrograde step and the council would write to the park authority asking for the changes to be limited.

He said: “There must be a value in local representation. This does not appear to be sensible or fair.”

The proposals follow the Glover Review of national parks last year, which concluded membership of the authorities was “far too large to be effective” and found boards should be cut to between nine and 12 members.

It stated: “The result is that officers spend an excessive amount of time servicing these bloated boards. One national park spends an entire day in committee each month and not discussing the important issues of the day.”

The report found the park authorities suffered from the same demographic biases as most councils, lacking proper representation across age, gender, ethnicity and disability.

It stated: “We’ve found local people often feel national park authorities are remote, despite the heavy presence of locally elected representatives. The most is not made of Secretary of State appointees.”

One of the North Yorkshire County Council members of the park authority, Councillor Stuart Parsons, said its local authority members had “little democratic accountability” as they were selected by the ruling party at the council. He added Coun Peacock had overseen a 29 per cent cut in members at the Richmondshire council.

A retrograde step... it does not appear to be sensible or fair.