Exclusive: Dales expansion branded 'senseless'

Natural England confirmed yesterday that it is pushing ahead with the contentious scheme to incorporate part of Lancashire and more of Cumbria into the national park.

Grave concerns have been expressed that the iconic name of the Yorkshire Dales will be lost forever if the national park is re-branded to accommodate the wider area it would cover.

Natural England will see a dramatic reduction in its government funding under the public sector cuts.

But the agency has decided to continue with the proposed national park expansion despite facing the loss of up to 400 staff from its 2,500-strong workforce in the next year.

Coun John Blackie, who represents North Yorkshire County Council on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, has been one of the fiercest critics of the proposed extensions.

"I cannot believe the situation we are now in with Natural England pushing ahead with the proposals at a time of such severe financial austerity," he said.

"It will be a bureaucratic nightmare to make the changes to local plans and planning regulations. The lunatics appear to have taken over the asylum as far as Natural England is concerned.

"There will be a huge expense on senseless and needless bureaucracy at a time when people are faced with losing their jobs."

The Government's cuts have meant that Natural England is faced with making 44.2m in savings over the next four years.

The organisation's current annual budget of 205m will be reduced to 194m in the next financial year.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority is facing its own financial crisis as funding from the Government is due to be cut by more than a quarter over the next four years. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced last month that the authority's annual grant of 5.4m will be reduced to 5.1m for the next financial year, falling to 4.2m by 2014- 15.

Coun Blackie warned that compulsory redundancies will have to be enforced at the park authority, which employs the equivalent of 120 full-time staff. The authority is due to meet on February 3 to discuss its budget plans.

The Yorkshire Post revealed last year that there was widespread opposition to dramatically increasing the size of the national park, which already covers 680 square miles. Natural England announced plans at the end of 2009 to include a series of beauty spots in Cumbria and Lancashire within the boundaries.

As well as fears the national park could be re-branded to accommodate the North West, there are worries that local influence will be undermined as members representing Yorkshire Dales communities could be replaced by councillors from Lancashire and Cumbria.

Natural England is considering submitting a case for the national park's expansion to Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman later this year.

A Natural England spokeswoman said: "The work to assess whether additional areas could qualify for national park status began in 2004 and will be completed within months.

"Natural England is under no illusions about the pressures on public finances and has yet to determine how to take the project forward once the assessment work has been completed.

"However, we need to make sure that any recommendations we do make to the Secretary of State are based on the best and most comprehensive evidence available."