Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Will a new national park be of any benefit?
Another national park? Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger wonders whether we haven’t already got enough - as he reveals to Defra Secretary Steve Barclay.
DEAR Steve, I have to say the announcement this week that the Government was looking for some other region of this fair land to designate as a national park filled me with a little misgiving – apart from leading me to wonder whether we have got our priorities right.
I note that one of the supporting reasons is that such a move will improve public access to the countryside. Now you will find no greater proponent than I of the notion that we should get more people off their sofas and away from their video games and out into the woods, fields and moorlands for a few health-giving lungfuls of fresh air.
But there is a non-sequitur here: merely providing more designated areas for recreation doesn’t necessarily mean people will want to go and use them. And neither can they be coerced to do so.
One could argue, too, that there already exist plenty of opportunities for people to avail themselves of beneficial outdoor exercise. Apart from the current range of national parks we have the new coastal paths and no fewer than 117,000 miles of rights of way – a staggering number for a small country – plus all the additional areas opened up by right to roam legislation. So those who wish to get out and enjoy the countryside can hardly argue that they are not being catered for.
I understand that there is concern about growing visitor pressure which is causing environmental damage to some of our more popular wild places but that is a fact of life.
People who want to enjoy challenging gradients will naturally gravitate to places like the Peak District or the Lake District and are unlikely to be content with tackling the somewhat less dramatic terrain of the New Forest.
Then there is the other side of the coin: the constraints and inconvenience national park designation can bring to those living within the boundaries.
As you may be aware, two-thirds of Exmoor national park lies within my constituency and I have to tell you I have over the years received a regular stream of complaints about onerous bureaucracy, ultra-restrictive and often pointless planning decisions and an apparent desire to freeze the area in some form of timewarp for the benefit of visitors.
The result of talking up the attractiveness of Exmoor has indeed been an upswing in the tourism sector. The downside being that a lot of the tourists have decided to retire or acquire second homes there, driving up property prices to a point beyond what can be afforded on local wages.
And the effect of that has been to create communities which are ghost villages in winter, where shops and other services have disappeared because there is no longer a critical mass of customers.
Meanwhile, economic activity has stagnated and because the park authority has done virtually nothing to provide affordable homes, local families have been forced to live outside the park boundary.
I accept that Exmoor was in need of being properly managed after the disasters of the 1970s when it was under the control of a cross between a military junta and a local branch of the Cosa Nostra and landowners – including the then (late) chairman of the park committee – were merrily playing the (government) game and trousering enormous grants for ploughing up moorland.
But what has never gone down well has been the decision to add ministerial appointees to the management structure – so-called persons with special knowledge who have often lived 100 miles away from Exmoor but have been happy to undertake lengthy, expenses-paid journeys to make a contribution to the considerable volumes of hot air being generated by committees.
And let us make no mistake about it: national park designation has not improved by one iota the natural beauty of the area – and nor could it.
Which makes me wonder what could possibly be achieved by the creation of yet another national park especially at a time when money is short and such a move could merely dilute the general national parks budget so that authorities such as Exmoor’s have to cut even more deeply into their spending and their front-line manning in order to balance the books.
Yours ever
Ian