Banished from the wilderness: how national parks are driving locals out

Beneath some of the UK's finest beauty spots lie the angry rumblings of the local population. Today, the CLA joins the public protest against the proposed South Downs National Park (SDNP) which threatens to accelerate the erosion of local communities in the South East. The CLA's submission to the Planning Inspectorate covers the following points: Restrictive planning inhibits new housing, distorting house prices and driving locals out

As with other national parks such as Exmoor, Peak District and the Lake District, house prices in the South Downs are likely to rise following restrictions on new housing. According to the Countryside Agency's 'Indicators of Rural Disadvantage', the gap between average house prices and local incomes in the South East is already one of the highest in the country. The creation of the SDNP will further distort house prices so that locals are forced out of the market, even if the park authority grants permission for new starter homes.

CLA Deputy President Mark Hudson says: 'Affordable housing schemes such as starter homes often run out of steam when the young occupants grow older, want to trade up and cannot sell because the next step up the housing ladder is too expensive. Sometimes families end up extending their original homes, thus removing them from the reach of the next generation of starters. But even where affordable housing is permitted, it is usually concentrated in larger villages rather than remoter hamlets where it is equally needed.'

One solution is to allow landowners to build affordable homes on their land, just as they have been doing for decades where planning has allowed it. But the new park's agenda could be in direct conflict with local needs, prohibiting development to preserve the landscape.

The countryside is neither a 'museumside' nor a string of tea shops

Planning policy within national parks tends to favour tourist, craft and catering businesses, but many of these offer low-paid, no-prospect seasonal work, shifting the entire area to a low wage economy. Many locals end up having to move to larger towns on the periphery of national parks in order to find adequate jobs and salaries.

Mark Hudson says: 'The concept of turning the SDNP area into a rural life museum is repellent to the CLA. Like every city, the countryside is dynamic and needs to change to survive. If we stifle change, the South Downs will die as an economic and social entity - taking its carefully preserved landscape with it. The process of long-term disinvestment is as insidious as it is intractable and irreversible.'

A thriving rural economy pays for conservation and landscape; it is not the other way round.

Mark Hudson says: 'Profit isn't a dirty word. It is the essential driver of a growing economy in rural areas. Without profit you can't deliver the environment people want, along with social goals, jobs and shops for the rural community. More importantly, landowners and farmers are the drivers behind conservation and land management.'
'In some national parks, investment in rural businesses that serve to maintain the landscape is in steep decline. Tourism and public access do not contribute to landscape management, and may actually create a system of short-term substitutes for traditional forms of land management.'
Landowners and farmers have decades of expertise not only in landscape and conservation management, but also in finding a way to pay for it. It is thanks to the efforts of locals that the South Downs has flourished as an area of outstanding beauty. If those living within the park's boundary are not properly represented within the park authority, the result could be poorly thought out environmental objectives which could damage the existing landscape. For example, creating grassland in the wrong locations could jeopardize the park's chalk downland flora and fauna.

The taxpayer's money will mostly be spent on bureaucracy

As has happened in other parks, most of the SDNP's budget is likely to be spent on maintaining the park authority. Will taxpayers be happy with this? Furthermore, does the region even need an additional layer of bureaucracy? To date, the South Downs has been managed very well by Sussex Downs Conservation Board and East Hampshire AONB Joint Advisory Committee.

The national park authority will be a partially elected public organisation, which will replace an existing democratic and local planning system. The administrative cost of a typical national park in the UK would not be acceptable in a charitable or other not-for-profit organisation.
 
Notes to the Editor:

The Government announced its proposal of a National Park to encompass the South Downs Areas of Outstanding Beauty along with other areas at the Labour Party Conference in 1999.

Following a long and involved consultation process, a public inquiry will now be held from 10 November 2003 in Worthing, West Sussex. The Country Land and Business Association, along with West Sussex, East Sussex and a number of district councils, are submitting their objections to the Planning Inspectorate. The CLA will give oral evidence at the hearing on the 16th December 2003.

The Countryside Agency's 'Indicators of Rural Disadvantage' was published in March 2003.

For further information contact Jenny Gimpel, CLA National Press Officer, on tel: 020 7460 7936, mobile: 07855 788 985, e-mail: jennyg@cla.org.uk