‘Landmark’ managment plan for National Park set to be approved

CUSTODIANS OF the North York Moors National Park look set to approve the most important document for its management in a decade, setting out numerous fresh goals to conserve and improve the area and harness its benefits for its residents and estimated 8.4 million annual visitors.

The park’s authority, which consists of elected members of local authorities and governmentappointed experts, will consider ratifying a management plan for the National Park to guide the work of many organisations charged with delivery of services at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday.

The plan’s development has seen input from dozens of organisations over the past two years and the document is being widely regarded as a landmark in that it aims to address the main challenges facing the National Park.

It focuses on mitigating the impacts of climate change, supporting farming in a postBrexit world, the need to address nature recovery and the importance of national parks to the nation’s health and wellbeing and features some 24 objectives.

The plan not only considers how the National Park can be more resilient and adaptable to changing climate, but also how the landscape will need to work harder to play its part in mitigating emissions.

Another leading element of the plan includes how the park will play a leading role in the creation of a national nature recovery network, developing schemes such as its Ryevitalise Landscape Partnership, which works together to energise local communities and volunteers, support farmers and welcome visitors to restore the natural and cultural heritage of the area.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Tom Hind, the authority’s chief executive, said in developing the plan the authority had “tried to use a little bit of foresight into where we felt the key challenges and opportunities were at a national level, but also what was special, unique and distinct about the National Park”.

As a result, he said harnessing health and wellbeing benefits from the park would also be a key aim of the new management plan, particularly following the pandemic.

Mr Hind added: “We’ve seen people really feel and see how access to nature has made a difference to their health and wellbeing, and that’s not just in the physical sense of walking or cycling in the National Park, it’s also more of an emotional sense where the connection might be through the arts or the simple pleasure of being there.

“We really want to build that position of the North York Moors playing an active role in lifting the nation’s health and wellbeing, but in particular for communities within and surrounding the National Park, which are some of the most deprived in England.”

The North York Moors contains one of the largest expanses of heather moorland in the United Kingdom. The area was designated as a National Park in 1952, through the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.

There are records of 12,000 archaeological sites and features in the North York Moors National Park of which 700 are scheduled monuments.

The North York Moors have not changed much in the past 50 years, and are often used as a location for British television programmes and films.

We’ve seen how access to nature has made a difference to people. Tom Hind, chief execruive of the North York Moors National Park Authority.