National park idea for Herefordshire is complex issue

Having been involved for some years in the process to establish the South Downs National Park in Hampshire, East and West Sussex, some words of caution would be wise, and critical analysis must be an important part of any decision-making process.

National parks are rural bureaucracies, with sole planning powers over those areas which comprise their designated territory. The empirical evidence proves beyond all doubt that the contiguous urban areas of the parks experience immediate degradation.

The reasons are obvious; confining the existing councils to a depleted planning area, allotments and recreational land, and other urban spaces are often reduced to accommodate potential planning sites to compensate for land they have lost.

The landscape and the townscape must have equable protection. That does not happen in those areas which have national parks.

Claims that national parks afford greater territorial protection is oft repeated, but certainly untrue. Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty offer protection under the extant local authority. The reason to create another rural bureaucracy with planning powers is totally unjustified.

Established authorities, such as the National Trust, and other conservation bodies, should not have imposed upon them another statutory bureaucracy. National parks do not affect land ownership, irrespective of their origins, but acquire supervisory intrusion over them.

The newly established New Forest National Park, for example, is 90% owned by the Crown and managed for them by the Forestry Commission. The latter works in partnership with the Ancient Court of Verderers, which now has the national park authority over them both, plus the New Forest Council.

Any serious intention to establish a county national park should first be subject to a public inquiry. The nature of those parks is very complex.

GEOFFREY COLLIER Aldwick, West Sussex