Voices of the Dales

Authority plans board overhaul

WHILST ITS stunning countryside makes it the poster picture for tourism in this region, let it not be forgotten that the Yorkshire Dales National Park is a living and working environment that around 24,000 people call their home.

Covering more than 2,000 square kilometres and straddling three counties - North Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cumbria, it is a vast expanse and its diverse communities range from collections of rural homesteads to picturesque villages and larger market towns. Such disparate areas face different challenges and, understandably, issues of utmost importance in one area may not be of concern at all to people living many miles away in another part of the Dales.

Its diversity, like its wildlife, its landscapes and its culture and heritage, is, of course, to be celebrated.

And it must also be recognised in the park’s governance.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is currently considering proposals to overhaul its board by cutting the number of elected councillors. It is a plan that has been described by one local council leader as a “retrograde step”, whilst a former leader has said such a change would result in “a loss of democracy”.

They are right to be concerned. Whilst the Glover Review of national parks last year found membership of governing authorities to be “far too large to be effective”, democracy relies on people in all communities being well-represented. If an overhaul is to go-ahead, it is incumbent on the authority to make sure that all of the Dales’s residents and businesses are able to have their voices heard.