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Dartmoor downsized while democracy ambles towards the National Parks
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- Written by Doug Young
Dartmoor National Park Authority is going to lose 3 members from its present makeup of 22 members and two National Park Authorities are going to experiment with direct elections for some of their members.
DEFRA published the results of its governance consultation undertaken earlier this year. We welcome the proposed changes as they largely coincide with the ideas we put forward in our response to the consultation. The DPA wanted more local involvement in Dartmoor, and the three seats downsized from the Authority will be taken from the National, County and Local Authority appointees. The amount of members appointed from the parish levels will remain the same, so their influence will be proportionally increased.
At the same time Authority members sourced from the Parish Councils will no longer be required to be members of Parish Councils, allowing the parishes to draw from a greater pool of talent. This option will be open to any National Park that requests it, and we encourage Dartmoor opening up the Parish appointees’ list to non-Parish Council members.
Direct elections are planned to take place in The New Forest and The Peak District. The formats of these elections and the proportion of Authority members elected will be decided after consultations. The expectation is that after a trial period they will be rolled out to all National Parks.
Direct elections need to be approached cautiously as the National Parks are created for the benefit of the nation. The Park Authorities have a primary duty to conserve the spaces for all UK citizens, and this has precedence over the interests of the local inhabitants. It is a tricky balancing act, but we at the DPA feel that some local democracy is overdue, and welcome these moves.
DEFRA also agrees with the DPA position that insisting that authorities appointing three or more members apply a strict political balance restricts the pool of candidates. This requirement will be ended.
Among the other proposals: A maximum term of appointment of eight years for all authority members and a yearly collective assessment of the members of each Authority. Both of these will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of the members.
The opening up of avenues for local involvement and for increasing the proficiency of Authority members will help ensure that the preservation of Dartmoor is not only of national importance but also has stronger regional support.
The full report from DEFRA which also contains the specific proposals for Dartmoor can be seen here.
