Protecting a national park while also supporting the people who live and work in it is a fine art.
There are over 40,478 people living within the Lake District and with that comes dozens of people looking to improve their businesses, homes and more.
But while it’s an area that needs to develop with the times – it’s also an area where overdevelopment is strictly monitored.
That’s where the Lake District National Park’s role as a planning authority step in.
Tasked with maintaining balance between people and landscapes – it gives advice on plans, reject, carry out enforcement and approve them on a weekly basis.
But why are the national park involved with planning? Why do they exist and how do they make their decisions?
We spoke with Andrew Smith, head of development management at the national park authority, to find out more about how planning works in the Lake District.
Why does the national park deal with planning?
Put simply – the national park authority in the Lake District must deal with planning by law.
The Lake District was first designated as a national park in 1951 and the planning committee – known formally as the development control committee – was set up in the same year.
The committee was given responsibility over the social and economic life of the area as well as its conservation.
Andrew said: “It was a Government decision made a very very long time ago that within national parks, the planning functions should be dealt with by the park authority rather than the local authority.
“National parks are special to the whole country and they should operate planning differently as it’s the purpose of the park to conserve landscapes, promote opportunities for enjoyment in the countryside and foster economic and social wellbeing.
“It’s interesting because it doesn’t apply the same way across all national parks. Us and the Yorkshire Dales work in this way, but if you go to the South Downs National Park, they’re structured a bit differently.
“So in those areas you get the local authority doing the legwork but they are still referred onto a park planning panel.”
Is planning handled in a completely different way to normal?
While the process of submitting a planning application and having it reviewed is the same across the country – there is a difference in planning policies in the Lake District.
Andrew said: “We handle planning in the same way generally. It doesn’t matter where you are, be it in a national park, anywhere in Cumbria or in the middle of London, all the planning authorities work to the same legal framework.
“So the planning acts are the same across all authorities and we should all have a local plan adopted that goes through the same process in terms of adoption and examination.”
“The thing that is different across the board is policies, which varies based on where you are and what the needs of the place are.”
The Lake District’s planning team is made up of 23 people who work alongside the planning committee who make the final decisions on applications.
Andrew’s team is tasked with dealing with all the planning casework that comes when applications are submitted.
He said: “As a team we do a handful of things, so we do planning applications, give advice to people, deal with enforcement of planning control and statutory regulation under planning applications and regulation.
“We do about 1,400 applications per year and around 500 pieces of written advice, 400 enforcement cases and 200 tree cases – so that’s around 2,500 pieces of casework per year.
“Some of that gets attention and some of it is just the mundane.
“But if you compare us nationally, we would probably be the same size as South Lakes or Eden, so we’re not small by any means in terms of the volume of casework, we’re actually much bigger than most of the national parks, except South Downs and the Peak District, they’re the same size.”
Enforcement action also makes up a large proportion of the work the planning team carry out.
Andrew said: “In terms of the application of enforcement action, we are disproportionately active.
“In England, there are 328 planning authorities, and for the amount of enforcement action that gets taken here, we are typically in the top 50.
“We’re working on the same scale as a small London borough and at one point we were doing more enforcement than all the other national parks put together.”
What policies make planning different in the Lake District?
Policies in planning are in place in the Lake District to make sure the national park authority protects the park while also supporting development that benefits communities within it.
These policies affect all planning applications – including house building and design, infrastructure development and more.
Andrew said: “In a national park there’s a strong presumption towards preserving the special qualities of the national park. So that’s things like the landscape, the cultural heritage and nature.
“There’s a strong thread running through the policies of protecting and enhancing the landscapes special qualities, and we have a fat book of them, but they are actually not trying to do a lot of different things.
“They’re mainly trying to get new development in the right places in towns, villages and places they already have development.”
Planning policies differ for different regions and national park’s across the country.
Andrew added: “While we’re all using the same legal framework, if you go into the middle of Manchester, you will probably find a stronger economic element there in their policies.
“But national parks also have legal purposes. So the purposes are two, the first is to conserve and enhance natural beauty and cultural heritage and the second is to promote opportunities for public understanding and enjoyment of the parks.
“Then if you have a tension between the two purposes, you should give greater weight to the conservation of natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage.
“So that’s a legal framework and that is national park specific. It’s also the national park’s duty to boost economic and social wellbeing of the communities within the national park.
“But that’s different to a purpose, as our purposes are our reason for being, and our duty is something we should be doing. But this balancing act all begins with our policies.”
The national park’s statutory purposes were set out in the Environment Act 1995 and are as follows:
- To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Lake District National Park; and
- To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the national park by the public.
It also has a duty in pursuing those purposes to:
- Seek to foster the economic and social well being of local communities within the national park by working closely with the agencies and local authorities responsible for these matters, but without incurring significant expenditure.
Section 62 of the Environment Act 1995 makes clear that if national park purposes are in conflict – then conservation must take priority.
This is known in law as the Sandford Principle, which stems from the Sandford Committee’s recommendation, in 1974, that enjoyment of the national parks is through leaving their natural beauty unimpaired for future generations.
How is the planning committee selected?
While local authorities elect their planning committees – the national park authority appoints its planning committee members.
The Lake District has 20 committee members who represent the public interest and are appointed by various public bodies.
As of April 1 2023, the national park’s members has been made up of six members appointed by Westmorland and Furness Council, four members appointed by Cumberland Council and 10 members appointed by the Secretary of State to represent the national interest in the park and parish councils within the park.
Andrew said: “If you go to say Westmorland or Cumberland councils, those planning committees are made up of elected councillors and it’s quite different in a national park.
“Our members are made up of people from different groups, so we have elected councillors from Cumberland and Westmorland whose councils nominate them to our authority, so they’re not directly voted to our national park.
“They’re voted into the councils and then it’s the councils’ job to say okay, you go and sit on the national park and then we’ve got parish councillors too who are appointed through a local election process done by the Cumbrian Association of Local Councils.
“Then we have some members who are appointed to the authority by the Secretary of State, so they run an advert asking for people who want to be a member of the national park and you have to say what qualifies you and you go through an interview and that’s done directly through the government.
“They try to reflect the local community but also national parks have a national interest as well, so that’s there to reflect that.”
Committee members are usually appointed for four years – but their terms can be extended to a maximum of eight years in total.
The current list of members includes: Matt Brereton, Gary Calland, Michael Carter – deputy chair, Will Clark, Jackie Drake, Neil Hughes, Vicky Hughes, Tiffany Hunt MBE – chair, Jim Jackson, Linda Jones-Bulman, Mark Kidd, Graham Minshaw, Sabine Mosner, Richard Outhwaite, Andy Pratt, Doug Rathbone, Peter Walter and Ian Wharton.
How are planning decisions made?
Planning decisions made in the Lake District are based on its policies – but the actual process remains the same as everywhere else.
Most planning committee meetings are livestreamed on YouTube.
Andrew said: “All planning applications are done in the same way. We start with the development plan and adopted policies and then you have to give regard to anything else that is relevant in the decision.
“How does that work? It’s based again off what is set out in the policies.
“But legally it’s no different, the legal framework is exactly the same outside the park. In terms of policy expectations it varies towards protection and enhancement of the national park
“That’s not necessarily unique to national parks either, some rural councils who cover any area of outstanding natural beauty will be similar policies and a strong emphasis towards landscape protection.
“For us it’s all about trying to provide more houses and jobs and not trash the spot at the same time. It’s about balance.
“The Lake District is a living workplace and it’s a manmade landscape that is a product of farming. Without human intervention, it would just be a forest.
“People live and work here and have needs and demands. We need housing, and you want to ensure there are good, well-paid jobs and that you are supporting businesses, so it’s not just about landscape.
“It’s about trying to balance those things while respecting the natural character of the place.
“You could probably provide a lot of jobs by building an Amazon warehouse on the side of Windermere, but it’s not a very good idea and that’s where the balance comes in.”
Appeals against decisions can be made to the Planning Inspectorate and only an applicant has the right of appeal against a decision.
