My Lords, I declare an interest as a property owner with tourism interests within the Exmoor National Park, going back very many years, and I have professionally had an involvement with several other UK national parks.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Whitchurch, for giving me advance warning when she tabled this amendment and for giving us an opportunity to have this debate. At an earlier point in our Committee, I had, through my own fault, a rather awkwardly grouped pair of amendments—Amendments 290 and 291—on an enlargement of national park purposes, which were
not actually moved in that group. Although they have got a bit lost in the system, I am glad that I have some opportunity to make a few of the points here. In any event, I would rather raise them in the context of Amendment 251A.
I have enormous sympathy with this amendment. For many people, the immediate reaction might be to ask why any adjacent authority would not have regard to national park purposes. But, recalling my own experiences, I can appreciate that this might not be so. The noble Baroness, Lady Jones, referred to the A27 at Arundel. Of course, as a Sussex resident, I am quite familiar with the long-running saga of how to deal with the discontinuity on parts of the A27. But, as the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, mentioned, this is a two-way affair. National park authorities do not, after all, have full jurisdiction over all areas of local government authority and other aspects. It follows that they must at the very least, for their part, be able to co-operate with those bodies that exercise jurisdiction in the areas they do not control, including highways, police, infrastructure, building control, fire and rescue, services and communications, and those sorts of things.
In the past, I have attended meetings on site within national parks to discuss, in one case, the improvement of an admittedly dangerous farm track exiting on to an unrestricted A-class road. The meeting had been triggered by an incident at that location which could easily have been fatal for a motorcycle rider. But, as it turned out, this matter seemed to be of little concern in national park policy terms. The improvement required would have involved the removal of some length of hedgerow to improve sight lines. Of course, that could have been replicated on the back of the visibility splays, as opposed to immediately adjacent to the current road, but that was not acceptable to the national park authority, despite the obvious problems for farm movements and the safety of highway users. As far as I know, the dangerous exit remains some 20 years later. But I find it very difficult to understand that conservation issues should be unable to take account of public safety or the orderly exercise of farming activities. In another instance, a national park authority apparently permitted substantial works for the installation of a bulk LPG tank for commercial purposes but did not realise that, without an adequate lay-by in addition, the necessary tanker delivering fuel would totally block a narrow unclassified road serving a lot of properties and would do so for periods of up to half an hour at a time.
The issue of breadth of policy and analysis is not helped when narrow thinking occurs, and local government in all its forms, including national park authorities, is not proof against this. I could quote many other examples of the sort of thing I have already mentioned. I think that the potential flashpoints—if I can call them that—are likely to expand, as our most recent cohort of national parks have incorporated more urban areas within their boundaries.
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The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, which created the national parks in the first place, was subsequently amended by Section 37 of the Countryside Act 1968. Annotated in a margin of that latter Act are the words:
“Protection for interests in countryside”.
Section 37 was further amended by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006 and the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Functions) Order 2013. As I interpret the audit trail, it remains in force. It is therefore perhaps appropriate that I read out what I believe Section 37 now states:
“In the exercise of their functions under this Act, the Act of 1949 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 it shall be the duty of every Minister, and of Natural England, the NRBW … and local authorities to have due regard to the needs of agriculture and forestry and to the economic and social interests of rural areas.”
However, I can confirm that this bit about having “due regard” is sometimes not regarded at all, duly or otherwise. It may be that highway safety and convenience is not regarded as an “economic and social interest”, but unless the Minister or any other noble Lord can tell me that Section 37 does not apply at all, I suggest that there are already provisions in place governing the degree of economic reciprocities that local authorities, and national parks with them, all too often overlook. I noted what the noble Earl, Lord Devon, said in the previous group on the question of economic reality. I get that.
It is worth bearing in mind that, within national parks, a great deal of the landscape that is cherished and valued, and the ecological richness often associated with it, is fashioned by hundreds of years of land management, not least farming and animal husbandry. Does the Minister agree that reciprocity in the recognition of various local authority and other statutory functions, as between national park authorities and others having various statutory functions, continues to pertain? More particularly, where there are differences, how best might these be mediated and settled? Secondly, on the question of economic and social interest, does she agree that Section 37 of the Countryside Act 1968, as amended, still applies and should be respected? Following this last, what does she feel will be the long-term consequences of inadequately taking these factors into account?