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TWO national parks are struggling in the face of severe spending cuts, those in charge have warned. In a statement released last week, Sarah Bryan, CEO of Exmoor National Park (above), said that she has ‘worked in national parks for 30 years and [has] never seen it anywhere near as bad as this’. Echoing those comments, Trevor Beattie, CEO of the South Downs National Park Authority, said that ‘it will be difficult to continue doing the job properly’, when asked by the BBC about past and future funding cuts.
Mr Beattie said that funding for the South Downs had fallen by about 40% in real terms during the past decade and that the authority has had to make £1.1 million of savings this year. Ms Bryan said that Exmoor receives about £1 million less in grant funding than it did in 2010 and will have to make a further £500,000 of savings by 2025. She also warned that the authority may have to sell woodland and increase charges to fill funding gaps.
In response, a Defra spokesperson told the BBC that they were ‘committed to supporting our national park authorities’. In last week’s Autumn Statement, there was no mention of national parks; however, the statement does indicate an increase in spending on ‘Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ of about £400 million for the next year.
The 10 national park authorities will be pushed to
