Delight at Defra announcement that Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Park extensions have been given the green light

The Campaign for National Parks is delighted with today’s announcement from the Environment Secretary Liz Truss confirming the extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks.

Responding to the announcement, Fiona Howie, Campaign for National Parks Chief Executive, said:
“This is absolutely fantastic news. Very simply, these are beautiful, inspiring and important areas of the countryside that always deserved to be part of our National Parks.

“They were originally excluded because of administrative reasons but now, after years of hard work by a lot of people, this is now going to be put right,” she added.

Ms Truss made the decision after taking into account the recommendations put forward by the Planning Inspector in October 2013 following a public inquiry.

She said that the two extension areas proposed for the Lake District National Park had been accepted in their entirely, while “with two minor exceptions” the proposed two extension areas for the Yorkshire Dales National Park had also been accepted.

The extension areas will come under the National Parks governance from 1 August 2016 to allow local arrangements to be made to transfer the planning roles and address the make-up of membership of the National Park Authorities.

Notes to Editors
1 Defra has today released important documents concerning the extensions to the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-parks-extensions-to-…
2 Information about the Campaign for National Parks campaign for the extensions can be found at www.cnp.org.uk/lakes-2-dales-campaign
3 For media inquiries please contact Tony McDougal, CNP’s Communications Manager (Tel: 07766133788) or email tonym@cnp.org.uk