Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan 2025-30

Response from North Yorkshire Council to Consultation on Draft Management Plan Objectives – March 2025

1. North Yorkshire Council (NYC) is grateful for the opportunity to respond to this consultation.   After reviewing the draft Objectives in the Management Plan, in particular those for which the Council is identified as either the Lead or Supporting Organisation for delivery, the Council has the following response.

2. The Objectives set out in the draft Management Plan cover a wide range of matters that potentially impact on NYC policy and service delivery. Hence, in preparing this response internal consultation has been undertaken with officers in the following NYC service areas:

- Planning policy

- Transport

- Highways and Rights of Way

- Flood management

- Environmental policy

- Climate change

- Natural capital and ecology

- Tree and woodland management-                         

- Economic development and skills

- Public health

- Broadband and telecoms

- Tourism

3. No significant areas of disagreement have been identified between the Council and the objectives set out in the Draft Management Plan and in many case the Management Plan objectives clearly support wider NYC objectives and targets across the county as a whole.  NYC supports the Objectives set out in the plan and will work with the National Park Authority and other partners to help deliver these.

4. The NYC Planning Policy and Place team has made the following specific comments in relation to the draft Management Plan:

“We consider the following as being of particular relevance to the work undertaken by the

Planning Policy Team:

• A2. Maintain the National Park as a place where a true sense of tranquillity and remoteness can be found so as to retain ‘Dark Sky Reserve’ status.

• D4. Significantly increase take up of natural flood management measures, including renaturalising 25 km of rivers by 2030, to reduce flood risks inside and outside the National Park.

• D5. Support more services along the Settle-Carlisle Railway and the reinstatement of other rail lines, increase bus and community transport links to surrounding towns, and improve infrastructure to support electric vehicles, so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel in the National Park by 50% by 2030 (compared to 2019 levels).

• D6. Support initiatives to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and increase smallscale and community renewable energy schemes, so as to reduce energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial, commercial and domestic properties by 50% by 2030 (compared to 2019).

• F1. Support the completion of 250 new dwellings by 2030, including at least 135 social housing, affordable or local occupancy homes to attract and retain younger working age households.

• F2. Increase the proportion of dwellings that are permanently occupied by requiring all new dwellings to be for principal occupancy, and, encouraging change of use from second homes, so that fewer than 20% of properties are under-occupied by 2031.

• F3. Improve local access to services that are essential to the long-term viability of local communities, including providing access to gigabit broadband to 99% of properties in the Cumbrian part of the National Park by 2026, and superfast (over 30Mbs) to 97% of properties in the North Yorkshire part by 2030.

• F4. Empower community groups to take on and manage services, take ownership of local assets and develop community wealth initiatives such as shops and community renewable energy.

• F6. Produce local plans to improve connections for walking, cycling, wheeling and riding in and around the National Park, so it is easier for residents and visitors to travel between places for work, for school and to key visitor destinations without needing a car, and create at least two new multi-user routes by 2030.

The Planning Policy Team support these objectives and agree with the identification of North Yorkshire Council as the lead or a supporting organisation for their implementation through the development of the North Yorkshire Local Plan. The Council will be mindful of the objectives when developing new local plan policies, and when producing evidence base documents to support the Local Plan and seek to further those objectives which contribute to the advanced preparation of their Local Plan, and any future work undertaken by the Yorkshire Dales National Park.”

5. TheNYC Highways Team has made the following specific comment in relation to Objective A2 (dark skies) in the draft Management Plan:

“NYC is and has been for some time, supportive of the Dark Skies initiative in the Yorkshire Dales (and North York Moors National Parks) and have worked with them on previous project involving lighting upgrades and the project we have just embarked on regarding footway lighting improvements as part of our current invest to save project.”