Yorkshire Dales

Just before we all rush to judgement in terms of this article let me say that our current evaluations of the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors for that fact aswell, Leader programmes, suggest something is being don’t to tackle these challenges set out in this article. It does however raise an interesting question about the relationship between super strict planning and the economic vitality of deep rural places. You know where I stand on that issue….The article tells us:

POPULATION numbers in the Yorkshire Dales National Park have stagnated for the first time in more than 40 years in the clearest indication yet of the mounting economic crisis faced by its rural communities.

Senior members at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority have issued a stark warning over a lack of job opportunities and affordable homes as plans are being drawn up to pinpoint sites for development to attract new enterprise.

Concerns are growing about the national park’s rapidly changing demographics with an increasingly ageing population and a dwindling number of young people and families, with many opting to either move away to pursue new careers or because they cannot afford to buy a home in the national park.

The trend is being mirrored in the region’s other national parks in the North York Moors and the Peak District, where data from the latest Census in 2011 revealed that population numbers have deviated little from the 2001 figures.

But influential politicians in the Dales have warned countryside communities are now “caught in the eye of the storm” after repeated warnings in recent years that more needs to be done to counter the affordable housing crisis and create more jobs.