PEOPLE are being invited to comment on the new five year programme of work for the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

The plan, which covers the period from 2018 to 2024, has just gone out for seven weeks consultation, with comments welcomed until the end of April.

A year of work has gone into the management plan, and it contains detailed objectives on farming and land management, economic regeneration and public rights of way.

It has been shaped by an initial ‘Your Dales, Your Views’ public consultation, which was held last summer.

It also takes into account the government’s eight point plan for England’s national parks.

A steering group made up of 16 public, private and voluntary sector organisations - including Craven District Council, the Dales Farmer Network and the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust - is responsible for producing the document, which also includes a long term vision for the park, up to 2040.

Steering group member, Yvonne Peacock, leader of Richmondshire District Council, said: “We have listened carefully to the views of local people and all those with an interest in the park, and we have come up with a management plan which – when carried out – will make the Yorkshire Dales National Park a better place to live and work and visit.

“Last summer’s public consultation was the start of the process to create the new plan. ‘Community sustainability’, the future of farming after Brexit and wildlife crime came out as the top three concerns of the public. In the new plan, people will see several objectives related to these issues,” she said.

“It is entirely possible that something has been missed, or that the objectives that have emerged need to be tweaked. That’s what this second consultation is about. We’d like to hear the views of individuals, businesses and other organisations before finalising the plan.”

The new plan is organised in the same way as the current plan, which covers the period from 2013 to 2018. Objectives are arranged under the six parts of the vision for the national park.

Carl Lis, steering group chairman, and also chairman of the national park, said: “Quite a number of the objectives – for instance on peat bog restoration, tree planting and raising the standard of public rights of way – are designed to build on the successes of the past five years.

“Other objectives – on farming, dark skies, attracting families, transport and broadband – are new and very ambitious. For instance, a date of 2021 has been set for the development of a ‘fully-costed, locally-tailored, locally-delivered, outcome-focused environmental land management scheme’ for the park.”

He added“The county councils will be leading on another new objective – to connect Grassington, Hawes, Reeth and Sedbergh, to hyperfast, fibre-to-the-premises broadband by 2023.”

Steering group member Dan Hudson, development strategy and housing manager at South Lakeland District Council, said: “The plan is the result of genuine partnership working and ‘joined-up thinking’ across public, private and voluntary organisations. There are some big challenges that we need to face up to but there is also much in it to get excited about. I hope people will engage constructively to help us improve it further.”

Included in the plan is the park authority’s long term vision that by 2040 it will be a ‘distinctive, living, working, cultural landscape that tells the ongoing story of generations of people interacting with their environment’. It will also be a’ friendly, open and welcoming place with outstanding opportunities to enjoy its special qualities’.

The vision sets out that it the park will by 2040 be home to the’ finest variety of wildlife’ in England.

It will be ‘resilient and responsive’ to the impacts of climate change, storing more carbon each year than it produces, and it will provide an outstanding range of benefits for the nation based on its natural resources, landscape and cultural heritage, which underpin a flourishing local economy.

By 2040, it is also aimed it will be home to ‘strong, self-reliant and balanced communities with good access to the services they need’.

The consultation runs until April 30. To see it, and to make comments, visit: your.yorkshiredales.org.uk. The current plan can be seen at: yorkshiredalesmanagementplan.org.uk