With your help, one of our biggest wins in many years came at the end of 2023: strengthening the iconic National Parks and Countryside Act to place a new duty on all public bodies in England to further the purposes of National Parks. This new law is groundbreaking, mandating public bodies such as Forestry England and water companies operating in National Parks to enhance wildlife, natural beauty, cultural heritage and public access – but it’s being ignored. This strengthened law has been in place for over a year now – but our monitoring shows this critical change is not being implemented. We fought hard for this ground-breaking change in law. It’s now time to fight even harder to ensure it delivers.
Campaign for National Parks has been granted permission to intervene in a case being heard by the High Court in early February – the first time in over 20 years that we’ve decided to take legal action. The case will set a precedent in how the government and all public bodies comply with the law.
We need your help urgently
So many public bodies seem to have decided to wait for the Courts to force them to act - so there must be a voice to represent these landscapes in the High Court.
Court cases are costly, please help us by donating to our fighting fund today.
Defending the law
After decades of calling for change, on Boxing Day 2023 we welcomed a new duty binding all public bodies in England to take action for Protected Landscapes. Specifically, section 245 (Protected Landscapes) of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 now requires all public bodies to ‘seek to further’ the purposes of Protected Landscapes.
This new duty requires every single public body to seek to further these purposes in every decision, function or action they take that could affect land in Protected Landscapes, and applies to thousands of public bodies: from local Councils to Government Departments, water companies, and energy regulators, the Environment Agency, Planning Inspectorate and many more. Given 175,000 hectares of National Park land – an area bigger than Greater London – is owned largely by the Ministry of Defence and Forestry England, this new law mandates a change in the way these areas are managed in a way that enhances wildlife and provides more opportunities for public access and wellbeing. It mandates that National Highways will need to put far more effort into identifying alternatives to significant roadbuilding in Protected Landscapes, and that Ofwat and the water companies place greater priority on reducing sewage spills in these areas.
There are now multiple examples of public bodies ignoring the law. For example, our analysis and Freedom of Information requests have revealed that Ofwat has not complied with this law during their final determination of water company business plans. We have escalated this to the Office of Environmental Protection, making a formal legal complaint.
But any law can only deliver if it is enforced – it is likely that in 2025, the Courts will decide how this law should be implemented.
