#171: Countrystride Live – Are our national parks broken?
...in which we gather at Rheged with an all-star panel to discuss what a renewed vision for world-leading protected landscapes might look like.
75 years since the Lake District was designated a National Park in a moment of national optimism, we ask our expert panel – author and journalist Julian Glover, former Lake District National Park Authority chair Tiffany Hunt, Tim Farron MP and the Campaign for National Parks’ Nick Hall – why interest in protected landscapes has waned in Westminster, even as visitor pressures mount.
We open discussing the political context that gave rise to national parks and the tensions and omissions built into the enabling legislation before considering the pressures on protected landscapes today – rising visitor numbers, nature loss and climate change, reduced state funding and Westminster inertia.
After hearing from our panel about formative memories in national parks (seeking Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle on Cat Bells – Tiffany; mumps on Great Gable – Julian; marooned on Windermere – Tim), we discuss what changes, to funding, purposes and governance, might help build renewed energy, focus and confidence in managing some of the world’s most cherished landscapes, before debating the state of nature and the merits, or otherwise, of leaner boards and visitor levies.
To attend a Countrystride Live event, see our Events at www.countrystride.co.uk/cslive
Julian’s 2019 Landscape Review can be viewed here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/designated-landscapes-national-parks-and-aonbs-2018-review
Tim’s podcast – A Mucky Business – is at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkCDZJTYzcCIAA3jSa3QvMIgdmJ18IdDh
The LDNPA’s Partnership Plan can be accessed here: https://lakedistrict.gov.uk/protect/lake-district-partnership/partnership-plan/
For more about CNP and its campaigning, see www.cnp.org.uk
