Grant cuts: Savings of £3m to come out of funding for national parks

The Yorkshire Dales, the North York Moors and the Peak District all face budget shortfalls of hundreds of thousands of pounds as they have grants from Defra reduced by 21.5 per cent by 2014.

Campaigners said that the cuts would inevitably lead to redundancies and warned that the adverse impact on services at the parks, which together attract millions of visitors annually, would be felt for years to come.

Ruth Chambers, head of policy at the Campaign for National Parks, said last night: "What we fear is that education, outreach programmes, and the work that rangers and local authorities do in promoting sustainability and raising awareness are the areas that will really be hit the hardest." The cuts to all 10 national parks in England were revealed as part of Defra's plan to deliver savings of 661m from its annual 3bn spending by the end of 2014-15.

In total national parks and Broads Authorities will lose 7m in a resettlement that will see all arm's length bodies of the department, including Natural England and the Environment Agency, miss out on millions of pounds.

The Yorkshire Dales will receive 4.2m instead of 5.1m and North York Moors will have its funding reduced from 5.1m to 4.3m. The Peak District budget will be downsized by 1.4m after a cut from 7.9m to 6.5m.

David Butterworth, Yorkshire Dales Authority chief executive, said: "The size of the cut will obviously mean a reduction in services and a reduction in the number of staff employed by the Authority."

A Defra spokesman said it worked closely with the national park authorities to ensure they were prepared, while each park in the region said it would carry out a public consultation on the cuts.