I am someone who believes passionately in the concept of National Parks.
However I believe they should stick to what they do best, and steer clear of what they do very badly.
In times of economic pain it is desperately sad to see unelected authorities giving themselves powers to tear into rural businesses but that is what has just happened here in Pembrokeshire.
This month the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority quietly introduced one of the most draconian measures possible under the guise of an apparent interest in increasing affordable housing provision in the Parks.
I don't know if you're familiar with our area and Britain's most densely populated Park. It is in the most part a sliver of a Park lining the coast and inland waterways of the county. Most of its beautiful landscape was created by human activity over thousands of years. That activity gave rise to communities and towns that in turn supported the land around them.
However, on 30th March the Authority passed for themselves the right to incur a new tax on land and redundant farm buildings permitted for residential development. This tax would be an attempt to extract hundreds of thousands of pounds by an Authority with no democratic mandate. The money raised would be put towards an ill-defined fund for increasing affordable housing in an ill-defined area by an ill defined mechanism.
So, if my brother - an organic farmer and founder director of the successful Welsh milk cooperative Calon Wen - seeks planning permission on a plot of land or old farm building for residential development to raise money to invest in his farm, he will now be expected to pay anything upwards of £30,000 in a tax to the planners.
Meanwhile if farmer 'Bob' across the lane (outside the Parks) needs to do the same, no such tax will be incurred because he is outside the Park. As you may know this National Park is no wilderness (the most densely populated Park, remember) so this astonishingly crippling discriminatory tax structure will be replicated throughout dozens of communities. You are familiar enough with rural economics to comprehend how the law of unintended consequences will accelerate this market distortion through communities within the Parks.
Fundamentally, an authority without democratic mandate has just given itself power to tax farmers and small businesses in the Parks, killing investment. Because the inspector requires a review in 4 years few owners of land will submit to this daft tax, so killing investment stone dead in rural areas, hardest hit by recession and the withdrawal of services, at a time when investment could revive our fortunes.
To add insult to injury there is a get out clause for land or barns sold to be turned into self catering holiday accommodation. No tax will be imposed there so an incentive to build more empty homes for tourists in the heart of our communities has been created. Those of us who want to see living communities won't fancy our choices.
No one has noticed this massive new burden on Parks communities. Few care possibly. But imagine if residents on one side of a Cardiff street were told to pay a tax of £20,000 to an unelected authority whilst the Jones opposite were not. It isn't hard to imagine what would happen.
The planners when challenged will adopt a righteous look of hurt and declare they are just trying to do their best to provide affordable housing and reduce the cost of buying plots in the Parks. Make no mistake, those of us who are familiar with this Authority know full well they have no interest in affordable housing, nor any statutory duty to provide it. Worse still they have few of the skills within the Authority to understand the relationship between rural business and housing in our communities.
They are required to carry out statutory duties (to conserve and enhance the natural beauty etc etc) and have NO statutory duty (contrary to what they claim on their website) but merely a requirement to "seek" to foster social and economic well being. They have fought very hard not to be required by statute to care about our social and economic wellbeing.
Odd then how they've embraced with such passion a 'social' measure that will destroy economic activity in the Parks and fail in its primary aim. Accident or design? You decide.
Extract of National Parks Act 1949:
A National Park authority, in pursuing in relation to the National Park the purposes specified in subsection (1) of section five of this Act, shall seek to foster the economic and social well-being of local communities within the National Park, but without incurring significant expenditure in doing so...
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