Masterplan to halt exodus of young in Dales

A NEW strategy will attempt to halt and reverse the decline in the number of younger people living in the Yorkshire Dales.

Richmondshire District Council, alongside other bodies, will create a plan to co-ordinate a variety of initiatives following predictions that the working-age population in its area of the Yorkshire Dales National Park will fall by 30 per cent between 2014 and 2035.

A meeting of the council’s corporate board next week will be recommended to agree to developing a wide-ranging blueprint and to agree to work with partners across the Yorkshire Dales to tackle a range of issues.

The four district and two county councils covering the park, and the National Park Authority, have met numerous times in recent months to discuss practical measures such as increasing housebuilding, creating employment sites and improving cultural activities.

The Richmondshire authority’s leaders said while a plan to increase council tax for secondhome owners to help lower house prices had been rejected, it was clear that overcoming the affordable housing issue in the park alone would not end the exodus of younger people.

Council leader Coun Yvonne Peacock said attracting families to live in the National Park was a priority and possible ideas included launching a marketing campaign to highlight the benefits of living in the area.

Coun Peacock said: “It has to be a package of initiatives.

“If it was a simple solution it would have been done already. We won’t have to spend an awful lot of money as we can do a lot with the resources we have already got.”