YORKSHIRE DALES NATIONAL PARK AUTHORITY ITEM 20

Date: 30 March 2010

Report: MEMBER FEEDBACK

1. Attached to this report is ‘feedback’ from the following member(s) who has represented the Authority:

• J Blackie who attended the Local Government & Humber, Regional Spatial Planning Board meeting on Thursday 4 March 2010.

Richard Parkin Secretariat Officer

Background documents: None 17 March 2010

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT YORKSHIRE & THE HUMBERSIDE

Regional Spatial Planning Board

Meeting – Thursday March 4th 2010

Report of the Joint National Parks Representative

I excitedly set off around 6.30 am on a cold and very frosty morning from Hardraw near Hawes in Upper Wensleydale to attend my first meeting of the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber (LGYH) Regional Spatial Planning Board, representing jointly both the National Park and the North York Moors National Park.

The meeting was held in Wakefield, some 85 miles from Hawes, so hardly a local venue and indeed Scotland is nearer to my house. The journey proved uneventful other than surmounting the summit between Wensleydae and Wharefdale at where descending towards Oughtershaw I felt like Amy Williams must have done on her skeleton bob – in charge of a contraption but with no control over where it and you might end up.

Eking out our remaining depleted stocks of grit courtesy of the directives from Central Government meant this part of the road, an important lifeline in the Upper Dales, had been left un-gritted for some weeks. In Winter Olympic terms it was a good slide.

The rest of the journey was fine, and having parked up in a multi-storey car park I made my way to the LGYH office, which is in a less than imposing side street that backs on to the shopping centre in Wakefield.

I entered the Conference Room and immediately met up with County Councillor Peter Sowray, who was substituting for Councillor Keith Knaggs. To re-assure me no doubt Peter said I would not need my nameplate “as everybody would know or had heard of me” which sounded a tad ominous. I looked around the room and did not recognise many faces.

Most of the representatives come from the City Regions – Leeds, Sheffield, Hull – and they certainly let you know it. One mentioned the name “Leeds City Region” 7 times in the space of 3 sentences. I think he was trying to make a point.

Noting there was not a Natural delegate I took the opportunity at Welcome and Introductions to announce I was from the YORKSHIRE Dales National Park which raised a hearty cheer around the room.

I used the first substantive item on the Agenda (approval of the Minutes) to query whether or not the two National Parks in North Yorkshire had to share representation, or whether each was entitled to a place. Whilst there was no certainty it was agreed the position would be made clear in the minutes of the meeting. These minutes are now available and there is only one place on the Board to represent both National Parks, so it will be a joint representation, switching between each Authority on a six monthly basis.

NPA30mar10MemberFeedback 3 The next item was a report of the progress (or lack of it) being made on sub-regional Planning Assessments. A multi-hatted delegate who purported to be representing a number of organisations, it seemed from The Forestry Commission to the Milk Marketing Board, had plenty to say on this rather dry item. He was able to unlock the mystery of the swathe of impenetrable acronyms peppered in the report, as they turned out to stand for a number of obscure organisations he was here to speak for. To be candid I was hard pressed to recall of any their names 5 minutes after he had said what they were.

Much reliance at the Board is placed on the Environment Agency (EA) and their Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) Maps. I chipped in that in my experience their maps were very often hopelessly inaccurate and grossly misleading. For Hawes, I said the FRA Map shows my offices and half of the Market Place at risk of repeated flooding yet history going back to the 17th century records there has never been one single flood in the town itself.

Placing every confidence in the FRA maps could result in overlooking places for development which might have proved very suitable but were blighted by inaccurate information from the EA.

Noticing a number of delegates cooing in agreement as I spoke I went a little further by saying I rated the Environment Agency a hard-to-reach organisation that did its business at an arms length from the rest of us. I clearly had struck a winning formula and a forest of hands flew up all wanting to trump my story with even more dramatic examples of inaccuracy and intransigence on the part of the EA.

Cllr Peter Box, the Chairman of the Board, and ever a diplomat, stopped the debate promptly to avoid the EA suffering further punishment, although he did say that everybody around the table would no doubt have a view on its performance as he privately did.

He agreed it would be helpful if the Environment Agency made a presentation to the Board in the near future. Our multi-hatted friend then confessed he had a remit to represent the Environment Agency as well, but he had decided to keep quiet about it!! Oh golly, this is going to be an interesting outside body to be on.

The next item was climate change, and this was clearly eagerly anticipated by some of the delegates. Especially as one of them said the snow over the winter had put back the cause of climate change and global warming some 20 years. An animated debate followed, and plenty of political posturing (with the election so close I suppose it was predictable) but there was very little in the way of substance.

By now the use of acronyms had turned into a plague, with CCER, RFRA, SFRA, SRWCSS and GIEB appearing in one turgid paragraph in the report. These out-foxed even our multi-hatted friend and nobody else seemed that interested in pursuing what they all stood for. Delegates just carried on spouting regardless.

The conclusions offered in the report, that climate change is important and we should draw all its various strands together were certainly ground-breaking, and were readily accepted by the Board. Hopefully it will be able to make its own contribution by harnessing all the hot air expended around the Boardroom into a future renewable energy source of benefit to our successors.

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The debate of the day had promised to be on “The scale and distribution of Housing - developing a new approach”. In short what this is the sub-text for is re-visiting the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) and its associated targets for new housing.

You need to bear in mind that the RSS is only 2 years into its 15 year term so in prospect is likely to be a legion of bitterly fought arguments amongst the various local authorities represented at the Spatial Planning Board, with each aiming to reduce or ditch their targets, against Central Government advice to increase them.

In the event it turned out to be disappointingly low key and whilst there was a little jousting between the various City region representatives about whose City Region was going places faster than any other, it is obvious that nothing is going to move on this particular topic until after the General Election.

I said on behalf of both National Parks that we were content with our RSS targets, but I think it was the local Government Office representative who chirped up that as the Dales and the Moors housing targets were both zero I was not saying much. Damn, I had hoped to get away with it.

More seriously if all the housing targets are up for a re-think and with the likelihood of them being increased, it struck me that there may be a move to give the two National Parks each a target number, which obviously would dilute from the focus we can currently have with a zero target on local affordable and local needs housing.

This is why it will be important to maintain a National Park presence at all the Spatial Planning Board meetings. I understand agreement has been reached on the YDNPA representing the 2 National Parks jointly for the next 6 months, and then it is the turn of the NYMNP to do the same for the following 6 months. Each joint representative will be the other’s named substitute.

A report of each meeting by the joint representative will need to be prepared, and sent to officers and members at each National Park. This is my first report then, and I hope it has been informative and reasonably interesting to read given its at times rather dreary subject matter

The remaining items were routine, and the meeting concluded at 11.30 am.

Deciding the metropolis was not for me that day, despite the various and competing attractions of downtown Wakefield, I headed for the hills armed with an M+S hoisin duck wrap, a bag of sea salt crisps and a bottle of their excellent still lemonade. These were enjoyed at Jockenthwaite where the bubbles joyously through a series of rapids and around an obstacle course made up of large rocks anchored firmly in the mid-stream.

It was good to be back. I wonder when M+S will open in Hawes.

John Blackie North Yorkshire County Councillor The Upper Dales Independent Member of the YDNPA

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