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"Not ours, but ours to look after", this was the theme of a very interesting illustrated talk by Adrian Thornton on the National Parks of England and Wales.
While the normal picture of the Parks is of their being 'Wild, Remote and Beautiful' they are varied in their location and style within. They range from the craggy beauty of Northumbria and the Peaks to the tranquility of the Broads.
Although though the first ten were established in the 1960's there had been calls for measures to make the countryside more accessible to people from the late nineteenth century. The Broads Park was created in 1988 and the plans for the New Forest Park are very well advanced as well as one for the Sussex Coast.
Ownership of the Parks is not uniform. Much of the land is in private hands although the Ministry of Defence controls many square miles in various locations. The National Trust owns large areas and preserves houses and environment for the pleasure of the public. There is farming, tourism, rural industry as well as larger scale industry all within the various Parks.
Managing the Parks is the responsibility of a National Parks Authority for each. These Authorities the over many of the responsibilities of local government. They set out what is permissible within the Parks and regulate the whole area. In many cases they maintain the infrastructure of roads etc. Without the control of these regulatory bodies and the work they do much of the country areas would revert to wilderness; the Broads, for example, which were the result of mediæval peat digging, would revert to land as reeds and weeds clogged the waterways without continual clearing and dredging.
Access by the public to the most popular areas is a major problem. More walkers, cyclists and off road motor users means more damage and more maintenance. There is a constant battle between the need to fulfill the purpose of the National Park philosophy of access for all and that of preservation for future generations.
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