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The Partnership’s 2020-25 Plan is now live. The launch of the Plan was an important stage in the journey for the Partnership to work collectively and with others to make progress on the key challenges in the plan.
The Partnership started the process of developing the 2020-25 plan with the outcome of the Lake District State of the Park Report 2018. This, along with the findings of the 2019 ‘Landscapes Review – National Parks and AONB’ (Glover Review), identified a number of key challenges that were recognised as needing to be collectively addressed through the next Partnership’s Management Plan.
Extensive engagement between Partners and an extended network of wider stakeholders – via working groups, special forum meetings and 1:1s over a two year period led to the development of a draft which was prepared for wider public consultation in May 2021. The consultation was promoted by Partner organisations and over 2000 responses were received – the Partnership would like to thank all those individuals and organisations who took the time to provided views, comments and information.
The consultation confirmed that the challenges themselves were the right key challenges for the Lake District, with high levels of agreement (ranging from 73 to 90%) from those who responded. Similarly the support for what the Partnership had set out to achieve was also very high (68 to 81%) across all of the key challenges.
A report on Changes compared with the previous Plan (2015-20) which summarises the key messages from the consultation, and how this has strengthened the Plan is also now available.
The Lake District National Park’s Partnership recognises farming is facing a period of unprecedented change. Engagement with farmers and land managers has been critical to inform the development of the consultation on the Partnership’s Management Plan and a development stage bid to the National Lottery Heritage Fund’s Heritage Horizons programme.
In January 2021, farming organisations within the Lake District Partnership organised a series of meetings and developed a questionnaire to get feedback from farmers. Over 120 farmers and commoners attended meetings or completed questionnaires either on-line or through telephone interviews and the responses have helped to shape the plan.
Key concerns from the engagement included the survival of businesses through the period of change, the survival of hefted flocks, producing environmentally friendly food products, support for young farmers and visitor pressures during the coronavirus pandemic.
This report summarises the key messages (pdf)
LDNPA Farming Officer said:
“It is important to acknowledge that farmers are key to delivering nature recovery networks and habitats in the National Park. More can be achieved when organisations, farmers and communities work together towards a common goal”.
If you would like more information, please email LDNPP@lakedistrict.gov.uk and we will get back to you.