BBC Film To Focus On 4×4 Problems In Peak Park

A BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary to be screened at the end of this month focuses on the challenge of managing opposing views about 4×4 and trail bike use on green lanes in the Peak District National Park.

Film-maker Richard Macer spent a year following the Peak Park Authority’s rights of way team and was given behind the scenes access  to help the public understand the challenges of managing a complex legal issue that arouses strong passions about the balance required to conserve and enhance the environment, while allowing people legal access to the countryside.

The documentary is part of a series caled Tales From The National Parks and will be screened at 9pm on Sunday 30 October on BBC4.

Peak Park governors up for election

The Peak District National Park Authority is  recommending 22 of its governing members go up for election in a trial of direct election for national parks.

The authority is currently governed by 30 members, of whom 16 are councillors appointed to the role and six are elected parishioners.

But the authority says all members – apart from the remaining eight state-appointed experts – should go up for election in the pilot. It aims to improve local engagement and was requested by Defra.

Future of Dovedale toilets – public meeting November 1

Residents, visitors and organisations are invited to have their say on the future of the public toilets in Dovedale at a public meeting.

The Peak District National Park Authority is holding the meeting at Thorpe Village Hall on Tuesday November 1, from 5pm to 6pm.

The Authority’s chief executive Jim Dixon, director of operations Richard Campen and head of property Keith Jennings will be there to hear people’s suggestions for alternative ways to maintain the public toilets.

The toilets at the iconic beauty spot are owned by the Authority and cost more than £17,000 a year to run and there are no income generators for the Peak Park to offset the cost. In the light of the budget cuts this seems a reasonable position to take.

However, Dovedale and the surrounding land belongs to the National Trust and the car park is privately owned and at £2.50 per car perhaps the responsibility should pass to someone with a big snout in the trough.

Princely praise for Peak District

PRINCE Charles has sent a message of support to the Peak District National Park in recognition of its 60th anniversary year.

The Prince’s message was read out at a service in Edale Parish Church, which was organised by Peak District National Park Authority chairman Tony Favell and led by the Rev Dr Simon Cocksedge, vicar of Edale.

The Royal message praised the Peak District’s record in pioneering services that are now part of country life and singled out the ranger service, which began in Edale in the 1950s, for providing a bridge between farmers and visitors.

National Park Authority sets out views on direct elections

Article taken from the Derbyshire Times who explain the situation better than I:-

THE Peak District National Park Authority, one of two national park authorities chosen by the Government to pilot direct elections, is recommending that all 22 of its council and parish members should be considered for election.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) asked the Peak District and the New Forest to pilot direct elections following a review of the governance of England’s 10 national parks, the results of which came out last month.

At present, the Peak District National Park Authority is governed by 30 members, 16 of whom are councillors appointed by district, county and city councils within the national park, six elected by parish councils within the park, and eight appointed by the Defra Secretary of State for their national expertise.

Defra has already ruled out applying direct elections to the Secretary of State-appointed members, who are recruited as experts on major national park issues such as cultural heritage, landscape conservation, recreation management and planning.

But Defra has asked for the Authority’s views on how many council or parish members should be directly elected, without increasing the overall size of the Authority.

A majority of members decided it would be wrong to be selective about asking council or parish members to give up their seats, and therefore all 22 should be put forward, and it would be up to Defra to decide.

They also voted on the principles on which direct elections should be held:

•That local residents achieve a greater sense of ownership of Authority decisions

•That elections do not damage the working relationships with local authorities or parish councils

•That the most cost-effective and efficient process should be identified

• That the costs of holding elections should not be borne by the Authority.

At present, only two out of the UK’s 15 national parks have a proportion of their members directly elected – both in Scotland – the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond & the Trossachs. In each case they are community members, their equivalent of parish members.

£5.5m moor restoration

A £5.5 MILLION conservation project is under way in the Peak District to restore pollution-ravaged areas of peat moorland. Work is being carried out by Moors for the Future, a partnership led by the Peak District National Park Authority.

Funding has come from a range of bodies, including Yorkshire Water, the National Trust, Derbyshire Council, Sheffield Council, the RSPB and the Environment Agency.

A team from environmental consultants Wildscapes has been involved in the latest phase of the work, one of the biggest conservation projects ever undertaken in the UK. The scheme aims to return 1an area of badly damaged peat moorland to a healthy condition and to protect a much larger area.

Polluted air has been killing off the plants that keep the moors healthy. Overgrazing, summer wildfires and the weather have also contributed to a management problem that, in large moorland areas, cannot be tackled by one organisation alone.

The partnership’s mission statement is to secure the legacy of 8,000 years of moorland life and ultimately to vastly increase the number and diversity of mosses and moorland plants that provide the basis for an important ecosystem.

Wildscapes was selected to deliver the latest phase of work because of their local knowledge of the delicate moorlands, as well as their heather and moorland restoration skills which have been developed from past initiatives, including the Coalfield Heathlands project as well as work for the National Trust.

Their efforts will help stabilise bare peat in some of the most damaged areas of moorland, including Kinder Scout, Bleaklow and Saddleworth, near Manchester.

All bottled up and no where to go

High Peak borough Council have again unanimously rejected resubmitted plans for a large water bottling factory at Cowdale Quarry near Buxton.

Local residents, conservationists and countryside campaigners are celebrating after working so hard to keep this beauty spot protected.

Cowdale is an important part of the buffer zone between the Peak District and Buxton, and crucial for stopping industrial sprawl, noise and light pollution affecting the Peak District National Park.

Chris Sabian is a writer with http://www.peakdistrict.com and co-owner of http://www.paragonprints.co.uk

Follow @pdview

Shake up for National Park

Members of the public will be able to get involved in key decisions over the future of some of Derbyshire’s best loved landscapes after the Government announced changes to the make-up of Britain’s national park authorities.

Pilot schemes are to be launched in the Peak District and New Forest, where direct elections will be introduced for the first time to select some park authority members. If the elections are deemed successful in improving the way those parks are run, they could be extended to other park authorities at a later date.

Define members of the public.

Jane Eyre to Boost Peak District Tourism

With release of Jane Eyre on Friday, September 9th in the UK, the Peak District is expecting a tourism bonanza.


The film starring starring Michael Fassbender, Mia Wasikowska, Jamie Bell and Dame Judi Dench has been filmed on location around Haddon Hall and is expected to bring sightseers flocking to the area.


Recent hits which have brought film fans flocking to the area include Pride & Prejudice,The Duchess, The Other Boleyn Girl and Robin Hood.


Haddon Hall has made a suitable Thornfield Hall before. It was cast as Thornfield by Franco Zeffirelli in 1996 and ten years later in the BBC version. Now it is director Cary Fukunaga’s turn.


This time more than 100 cast and crew transformed the building, with scenes being filmed in the minstrels’ gallery, the state bedroom, the kitchen and even the private apartments.


The cast and crew were billeted at various locations during the four weeks of filming, with many of the stars staying at the nearby Peacock at Rowsley.


Other locations include the ruins of Wingfield Manor near Alfreton, which double as Thornfield after it is ravaged by fire, and White Edge Lodge – a former gamekeeper’s cottage, now a National Trust holiday home on the Longshaw Estate – which serves as The Moor House.


And the wild romantic landscape that first inspired Charlotte Brontë is allowed to speak for itself. Stanage Edge, one of the area’s most dramatic natural landmarks, has been chosen to capture Jane Eyre’s profound sense of isolation. The area around her school is filmed near Edale and the softer countryside where Rochester rides around Thornfield is represented by the lush water meadows below Haddon Hall.


Charlotte Brontë visited Hathersage in 1845 and is thought to have based much of her novel on landmarks she encountered in the area.