Discussions on possible National Park status for Cotswolds

Thu 11 Jan 2018, 10:35

Thank you Richard and Claire
This kind of discussion is exactly what I was hoping for
To answer Claire
The constitution of any National Park Authority would be just one of the things to decide if this went ahead
As Richard points out at the moment the Cotswold Conservation Board…

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Wed 10 Jan 2018, 23:13

In a National Park, planning applications are decided by the National Park Authority rather than the District Council. However, the NPA members are generally selected from democratically elected authorities. For example, the Lake District National Park Authority has 20 members: 5 from Cumbria County Council, 5 from the District Councils, and 10 appointed by the Secretary of State to represent both the "national interest" and local parish councils.

So, for Charlbury, one win is that there's a formal role for parish/town councils, whereas there isn't in the current setup. That's particularly important given that Charlbury has usually, at district and county level, voted for a candidate not of the governing party, which means we can get ignored. Over and above that, Charlbury has been well represented on the Cotswold Conservation Board (which runs the AONB) and I would expect that to continue - until recently the chair of the Conservation Board was from Charlbury.

Probably the biggest change that would impact Charlbury is that National Parks have to abide by the "Sandford Principle" which says, roughly speaking, that conservation/preservation is always the most important factor in planning decisions. (You can read more at www.nationalparks.gov.uk/students/whatisanationalpark/aimsandpurposesofnationalparks/sandfordprinciple and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandford_Principle .)

It's interesting that David Drew, the MP for Stroud, and Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the MP for the Gloucestershire Cotswolds, are both interested in the idea - although politically they're about as far apart as it's possible to be! Certainly I think it's an idea that's worth exploring.

Wed 10 Jan 2018, 14:31

Please someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that if we were a National Park, a National Park Authority would take over some or all of what is currently done by WODC. And the people running the National Park would not be elected in the way that WODC councillors are. Instead they would be directly appointed by Government and the local authorities.

This is quite a big deal for local democracy!

That is not to say that I would oppose it, I would however like to understand more about what it means in practice.

Wed 10 Jan 2018, 07:11

There now seems to be gathering momentum for this and I would like to get views from Charlbury that I can quote in our discussions
An MP in the Cotswolds has just published a press release on this topic and I know that our own MP is in support of further discussion
The South Down National Park has several similarities to the Cotswolds and it seems to work well for them see
www.cliftonbrown.co.uk/content/national-park-cotswolds
Please respond with comments or contact me for clarification