Proposals would 'have a lasting impact on the landscape '

The head of a national park warned the Government’s planning-law changes will turn the area’s rural landscape into a townscape.

Former Conservative MP Tony Favell said proposals would lead to wholesale uncontrolled development in the Peak District and other English national parks.

Mr Favell, who is now chair of the Peak District National Park Authority, said the country’s national parks must be exempted from a change that would allow farm buildings to be turned into schools or houses without the need for planning permission.

It follows recent changes which already allow farm buildings to be converted into shops or offices, and for offices to be turned into homes, without planning permission.

Peak District National Park Authority unanimously opposed the proposals on which the Government is currently consulting.

All the other nine national park authorities in England are also voicing strong objections, and National Parks England, which represents all English national park authorities, is submitting a joint plea for national park exemption.

Mr Favell, who is also a member of High Peak Borough Council, said: “These proposals would have a lasting impact on the landscape and heritage of national parks, and all the English authorities are clear about the need to mount a robust defence of these precious qualities.

Tony Favell, Peak authority chair

“Traditional farm buildings are an integral part of the landscape and heritage which we and other national park authorities were set up to conserve.

“These proposals would seriously undermine one of our main statutory purposes and diminish local control of the management of national parks.

“It’s not that we oppose the re-use of redundant farm buildings; far from it.

“We have, through the current planning system, approved conversions to houses and business units where appropriate and sustainable.

“We are able to do that on a case-by-case basis, but this would just lead to wholesale uncontrolled development that threatens to change the character of the area irreversibly, turning a rural landscape into a townscape.

“These proposals endanger the whole concept of national parks being special areas, set apart because of the quality of their landscape and heritage.

“We appeal to the Government to exempt national parks from these proposals, safe in the assurance that it will not exempt them from continuing to support local communities and the economy.”

The consultation, by Eric Pickles’s Department for Communities and Local Government, runs until 15 October.