Organisations responsible for helping to care for the Yorkshire Dales National Park are on course to hit targets set to improve the area.

The National Park Management Plan – called The Yorkshire Dales: Today and Tomorrow – is a 32-page document mapping out key objectives for the National Park between 2007 and 2012.

It was updated in 2006 by a group comprising statutory agencies like the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA), English Heritage and Natural England, and the three local strategic partnerships for the South Lakeland, Richmondshire and Craven districts to try to ensure that it covers the key local and national issues that affect the area.

Those organisations – and others – have now formed a Steering Group which is monitoring progress in implementing the Management Plan.

The group’s first report – presented to today’s (29/7/08) YDNPA meeting – shows that good progress is being made in meeting most of the plan’s 70 objectives.

We have made real progress in a significant number of the objectives but there is still more work to do before we can say we have met all the targets.

Carl Lis - YDNPA Steering Group

Successes include:

• 70 per cent of the Park now being covered by agri-environment agreements, with more than 40,000 ha in the new Environmental Stewardship scheme
• the National Park Authority’s Sustainable Development Fund funding 19 projects, worth over £950,000, which are bringing economic, social and environmental benefits
• 89 per cent of highly-sensitive ‘green lanes’ now having management plans in place
• 90 per cent of the Pennine Bridleway route through the Dales now completed
• the area of Sites of Special Scientific Interest land in ‘favourable or recovering’ condition has increased by 2,000 ha, and now stands at 80 per cent
• 166 hectares of native broadleaf woodland have been planted over the last two years;
• the number of Listed Buildings ‘at risk’ fell for the third year running – down to 72 (four per cent of the total).

The National Park Management Plan is explained in full in a new section of the YDNPA website found at //www.yorkshiredales.org.uk/index/looking_after/yorkshire_dales_national_park_management_plan.htm.

Visitors to the website can look at any of the objectives in the Plan and see the latest information on how much progress has been made.

Mr Lis said: “We think it is really important that anyone can find out easily what our organisations are doing to look after this beautiful part of Yorkshire and how far we have progressed towards the targets we have all signed up to.

“The website information on the Management Plan has been designed to be straightforward so that it can be regularly updated and easily understood.”