Report by Local Democracy Reporter – Jon Cooper
Derbyshire County Council’s Reform UK administration has confirmed it has no plans to charge visitors and motorists coming into the Peak District National Park after the Council Leader had previously suggested the possibility of an entry fee.
Opposition Conservative Group Leader, Cllr Alex Dale, urged the Reform council administration to back a motion at a council meeting on May 27 to express its opposition to entry charges.
It came after he had successfully persuaded the authority to join opposition to the East Midlands’ Mayor’s proposal to also introduce a ‘tourism tax’ levy for overnight visitors to the national park.
Cllr Dale told a recent council meeting: “This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Peak District National Park which as you know is Britain’s first national park and it’s most popular as well and it was created on the principle that our countryside should be open and accessible to everyone regardless of our background or income.
“So I find it personally astonishing that the Leader of the County Council, Cllr [Alan] Graves, has repeatedly advocated introducing a pay-to-enter charge scheme for the Peak District.
“Not once, not accidentally, not taken out of context, but repeatedly over the course of the year including a recent statement that ‘my position remains the same’.”
The issue resurfaced after discussions involving Cllr Alan Graves around the PDNP’s 75th anniversary celebrations marking its designation as a national park on April 17, 1951, and after PDNP Authority Chief Executive Phil Mulligan said raising taxes to help fund national parks is an obvious and very fair solution to ease its financial challenges.
Cllr Graves has previously argued the PDNP has been given limited Government grant funding amounting to a ‘cash freeze’ which he claims means it has had a cut when considered alongside inflation and the ‘extra things’ that the Government has done in adding employment costs.
He conceded that during a previous discussion he was asked if it would be acceptable to have a visitor charge of £1 after this was raised by the Peak Park’s Chief Executive and Cllr Graves had said he would be sure people would be willing to pay £1 and when asked how this would be done he suggested cameras among other schemes could be considered.
However, Cllr Graves told the recent council meeting: “The Peak District National Park is a national treasure. It’s the first national park in this country and the first in the world.
“It was founded on the principle that the countryside should be open and accessible to all and I believe that principle whole-heartedly. Nobody in this chamber will hear me say otherwise. On that we are united.”
Cllr Graves argued his previous comments were made during a discussion about how the Peak District might raise funding but he stressed that he had also said his preferred option was that the national park should be funded properly through the Government.
He insisted any suggestion of a £1 entry fee was based on a ‘conversation’ not a ‘proposal’ and not a ‘policy’ and that Cllr Dale’s motion removes the context and exaggerates his comments as a ‘political football’ into a formal congestion charge.
Cllr Graves said: “If this Government of the country, whether Conservative or Labour, is not prepared to fund the Peak District adequately that is not unreasonable to ask what alternatives there are?”
He told the meeting the Peak District National Park has lost approximately 40per cent of its budget in real terms since 2010 when the Conservatives began a 14-year tenure in Government, staff rangers have been cut, resources have been cut, and that its Chief Executive has spent years managing the world’s first national park on a ‘cash freeze’.
Cllr Graves accused the council’s Conservative group of failing to come up with a solution in its motion on how to fund the national park if the current Labour Government will not do so.
He stressed he has no objection that the council reaffirms the Peak District should remain freely accessible but he accused Cllr Dale of misrepresenting his comments while ignoring the funding crisis faced by the national park and while it is the Government which should be pressed for funding.
Labour Cllr Anne Clarke backed Cllr Dale’s motion highlighting the significance of the historic Kinder Trespass in 1932 which resulted in improved access and the ‘right to roam’ for all in the countryside.
But she added that she does not oppose the Labour East Midlands Combined County Authority Mayor Claire Ward’s proposal of a levy of a couple of pounds per room per night for overnight visitors to the Peak District.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Tom Snowdon also supported Cllr Dale’s motion arguing that an entry fee into the Peak District would be impractical and the prospect of doing so with cameras seemed to suggest ‘Big Brother’s alive and well in Derbyshire’.
Reform UK Cllr Paul Parkin submitted an agreed amendment to Cllr Dale’s motion to include recognition of the PDNP’s reduced budget and cuts, and that without adequate Government funding it faces increased pressures.
It added that the Government should be called upon for improved funding, and that the Council Leader will write to the Government and the East Midlands Mayor urging action to address the shortfall.
Cllr Graves said: “We have already opposed a visitor economy levy. We said then and we say now again that the cost of looking after our landscape must not be shifted by a view of mandatory tax onto visitors and local businesses.”
However, Cllr Graves also said he is not ‘closed-minded’ about how the PDNP can be funded with sustainable alternatives alongside Government funding including voluntary visitor contributions, philanthropic partnerships, heritage and lottery funding, sponsorship from businesses alongside stronger partnerships with the wider tourism sector.
He argued the amendment to Cllr Dale’s motion calls for a proper Government settlement and leaves the door open for additional ways of funding while standing firm on the principle that ‘no mandatory burden should fall on visitors or on local businesses’.
However, Cllr Dale insisted that Cllr Graves had originally proposed an entry congestion charge into the PDNP for motorists.
Cllr Dale said: “You said those words. They were reported in several news outlets and you stood by them. You said those words. You proposed and mooted a congestion charge on the Peak District.
“A Reform leader of a Reform county council here in Derbyshire proposed to charge his own residents to enter the Peak District. So you can dress it up however you like, you said those words.”
Cllr Dale argued every Government department and local authority has struggled with funding constraints after a global recession and the Covid pandemic and if Government does not provide desired funding there is a need to adapt and not always go to the ‘begging bowl of Government’ for a problem.
He also said the PDNP has not helped itself due to a ‘draconian approach’ to planning and development in the Peak District with people moving out because they cannot afford to live there and even though everyone wants to protect the national park it needs to be viable.
Councillors voted in favour of both Reform UK’s amendment and Cllr Dale’s amended motion for the council to express its opposition to proposals to introduce any congestion charge, road-user charging scheme, or pay-to-access scheme for the PDNP and that the council will strongly oppose any attempt by any public body to introduce such schemes within Derbyshire.
Conservative Cllr Wayne Major told the meeting: “The county council’s position will be that it will not introduce road charging to the Peak District, so we are very happy and we are pleased that we have finally convinced you that road charging is a bad idea.”
Derbyshire County Council also voted in February by a majority in favour of calling on the Labour East Midlands Mayor to scrap a Government proposal for a ‘tourism tax’ on overnight visitors to the county and its Peak District National Park as part of national budget plans.
However, Mayor Claire Ward and Labour High Peak MP Jon Pearce had criticised Cllr Graves for his original suggestion of a small charge for people entering the Peak District as the national park continues to look at how it might increase funding.
