A look back over 2011

This Blog is a look back over 2011.  Next week with Tony Favell, Chair of the Authority, I will write about what is coming up in 2012

Our Diamond Jubilee year was busy, memorable and gave us pause for thought for the future too.

Celebration of our Jubilee Year at Ashford in the Water

For many, it was a year of huge change and sadness too.  In March we closed the doors for the last time to guests at Losehill Hall and said tearful goodbyes to many colleagues who worked there. While this has been tough for everyone involved, I am pleased the learning and discovery team will move back into the building when it re-opens as a new youth hostel next year.

We also signed the lease with the RSPB and National Trust for the Eastern Moors and agreed to hand over the management of the Roaches Estate to the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. Whilst each has a tinge of sadness for people who have worked hard on those estates, I have no doubt these were all good decisions for the National Park.

2011 was a time when we began to invest in the future too.  May saw the completion of the brilliant Monsal Trail tunnels project to huge acclaim and by the end of November 48,000 people (including the Minister for Tourism and the Chief Whip!) had cycled it and many more walked and rode their horses on this wonderful new route. It has become a firm visitor favourite and an asset to our economy.

The Duke of Devonshire meets former railway workers at the launch of the new Monsal Trail

It was fitting that we expanded our trail network in a year when the Tissington Trail celebrated its 40th birthday too. And to cap this, we opened the lovely newBlackHarryTrailsnetwork and celebrated 20 years of Peak Park Leisure Walks.

Our access work was under the media and public spotlight this year with a BBC4 TV documentary, the first experimental Traffic Regulation Order at Chapelgate in August and a revised policy and new funds for this work to accelerate action agreed with wide support in December.

Our outreach work to help people understand the national park has continued to inspire thousands.  I really enjoyed my days out with the education team with Sheffield 6^th formers, the first of theCheshire special schools visits to the Peak District in Longdendale and also with the Mosaic Champions who visited Ravenstor youth hostel this summer.

I was reminded of the wonderful work our rangers have done for decades by Gordon 'the warden' Miller

We continued to make great strides with our conservation work and were especially pleased to welcome Sir John Lawton to launch our new Biodiversity Action Plan.  Despite coping with horizontal rain, Sir John was hugely impressed with Moors for the Future which remains a beacon for whole landscape conservation work at a time when this approach is being championed nationally.

We made a great breakthrough on the sensitive issue of protecting birds of prey on shooting estates, leading the way nationally, and have begun to make progress with our partners on addressing the decline of farmland birds.

We continue to work closely with farmers on the transfer of ‘old’ to ‘new’ agri-environment schemes and have been particularly successful at making great progress on some large grants for traditional farm buildings.  And the Peak District has never been as busy at night, thanks to the incredible start we’ve had with our Dark Skies project.

Our planners have had a very busy year with their fair share of complex and taxing cases. They have made great progress with affordable housing schemes, such as those approved in Birchover and Youlgrave.  We’ve supported dozens of farmers with planning approvals for slurry stores across the Peak District and we continue to make decisions day in and day out that preserve the character of the national park.

Planner Chris Fridlington has helped dozens of farmers sort out the planning permissions required for new slurry stores

We continue to have an excellent record of winning appeals and meet all our main targets. We are in the vanguard of planning authorities who have had their Core Strategies approved – a process which has produced a good strategy with huge support from across the range of interests who contributed.  And Sarah Foster was awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Young Planner of the Year and, as a result, visitedBostonandSwansea.

We continue to support many communities with expertise and grants helping many people with new village halls, community orchards, woods and enterprises and the continued buzz of people making their lives and communities better.

Set against a tough national and international economic picture, we have made a real contribution to our economy, with an active local procurement approach, a planning service skilled in working with business and a very successful year for Live and Work Rural.  I have enjoyed enormously working with the newly-established Business Peak District whose Board have gelled well and have given selflessly of their time in building a new organisation which is winning support locally, with the new Local Enterprise Partnerships and nationally too.

The launch of Business Peak District was attended by over 100 businesses

We have shown our own entrepreneurial spirit by developing a more commercial approach to the way we provide some services. Since October our design team has been operating on a commercial basis rather than being centrally funded with all internal and external work charged for.

And in December we agreed a new future for the Environmental Quality Mark scheme which will see it operating as a community interest company from 2012.  More entrepreneurial approaches are also underway in visitor centres, cycle hire centres and campsites.

As an organisation we have focused on three main improvement projects – developing consistently good customer service, doing more effective staff engagement and development and helping the public to understand and relate to the planning system.

Members enjoyed an excellent tour of the Warslow Moors Estate

We said a sad farewell to our former chair Narendra Bajaria in March but Tony Favell has filled his shoes very well and already made his mark with communities, local authorities, Ministers and all of the staff he has met face-to-face.  Our two main committees are effective and well-led by John Herbert and Christopher Pennell.

We welcomed some new members, and welcomed back others, but were sad to mourn Ron Priestley, one of our longest-serving members, and Janet Goodison, who showed so much promise as a new member.  We saw Bev Primhak leave to enjoy a dream lifestyle in theMaldivesand Matt Croney rather less exotically to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.  Their successors Andrea McCaskie and Keith Jennings are great ‘catches’ for us and are both popular colleagues.

We celebrated our 60^th Anniversary at Longshaw with the launch of what is set to be the best National Park Management Plan we have ever done, with great support for it from our partners.  And it was lovely to hear a personal message of support fromHRH the Prince of Wales at our well-attended Church Service in Edale this autumn.

I enjoyed enormously reflecting back on our 60 years as an organisation with the wonderful ‘Long View’ conversations for my Blog that I had with Gordon Miller, The Dowager Duchess ofDevonshire, Sir Bob Kerslake and Prof John Tarn, and also reading the interviews with other pioneers such as John Foster, my first predecessor. These are all inspiring and accomplished people who have a love for the Peak District National Park, have helped make it what it is today and share a real concern for its future.

The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire with one of her chickens

I hope you have a very happy Christmas and an enjoyable 2012.

In Part 2 of this message next week, I will look forward with the Chair of the Authority to the year ahead.