Pembrokeshire Assembly Member Angela Burns, Shadow Minister for the Environment has lobbied the National Assembly to review the aims of the National Parks in Wales. Mrs Burns pointed out that our National Parks are not wilderness areas like they have in France or the USA but are living landscapes shaped and shared by people as well as plant and animal life.
The current aims (or purposes) of the National Parks are to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the Parks and secondly; to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the Parks by the public.
However a review of National Parks carried out by the Government a few years ago also came down in favour of a third aim, to promote the social and economic well being of those living in the Parks. Whilst this may be partly undertaken at present, sustainable development and economic welfare is not mandatory and the Welsh Conservatives believe it is time for this to be re-examined.
Mrs Burns also called for 60% of the National Park Authorities to be directly elected. “I have heard complaints from people living in Snowdonia, the Brecon Beacons and Pembrokeshire Coast National Park that they feel disenfranchised. We elect local & county councillors, Assembly Members and MPs but we have this democratic deficit in the Park Authorities. There is no obligation for the representatives on the Authorities to be drawn from people in the parks and therefore no accountability”
In the debate Joyce Watson said “just because you have put people up for election, it will not necessarily empower voters”. In response Nick Bourne, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives said, “I would have thought, that if you have elected representatives, they are accountable to the electorate, which is the point that we are making. You will get good and bad ones, but they are all accountable to the electorate”.
“The Government voted this down” said Mrs Burns “and I couldn’t disagree more because we are all accountable at the ballot box and I fail to see why people who live in places such as Tenby, Angle or Newport should be denied direct representation. The wider communities and the national interest will be served by having the balance of Park members co-opted on by Councils and the Government. I think this strikes the right balance and who knows, things might get moving again. Look how long we have had to put up with the eyesores along Tenby’s beautiful sea front and I have met innumerable people, whose love of working and living in the Parks is being strangled because there is little acceptance by Government that people are part of the treasure that is a National Park”.
“These wonderful areas are part of our heritage and future for forthcoming generations. How these are managed and made accountable for us, and our children, are of vital importance not only to Wales but the World.”
