The national parks of the United Kingdom (; ) are 15 areas of relatively undeveloped and scenic landscape across the country. Despite their name, they are quite different from national parks in many other countries, which are usually owned and managed by governments as protected community resources, and which do not usually include permanent human communities.
In the United Kingdom, an area designated as a national park may include substantial settlements and human land uses that are often integral parts of the landscape. Land within national parks remains largely in private ownership; for example, nearly one-fifth of South Downs National Park's area, , is owned by eight members of the gentry. These parks are therefore not national parks, according to the internationally accepted standard of the IUCN but they are areas of outstanding landscape where planning controls are significantly more restrictive than elsewhere.
Within the UK, there are 15 national parks, of which ten are in England, three are in Wales and two are in Scotland; there are no national parks in Northern Ireland. An estimated 110 million people visit the national parks of England and Wales each year. Recreation and tourism bring visitors and funds into the parks, to sustain their conservation efforts and support the local population through jobs and businesses. However, these visitors also bring problems, such as erosion and traffic congestion, and conflicts over the use of the parks' resources. Access to cultivated land in England and Wales is restricted to public rights of way and permissive paths.
Administration National parks are a devolved matter, so each of the countries of the United Kingdom has its own policies and arrangements for them. The national parks of Scotland and those of England and Wales are governed by separate laws: the National Parks (Scotland) Act 2000 and the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 respectively.
The Environment Act 1995 defines the role of national parks in England and Wales as being: to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Parks by the public.
The Broads differs from the twelve national parks in England and Wales, in having a third purpose that carries equal weight, that of: protecting the interests of navigation.
The Scottish national parks have two further statutory purposes: to promote sustainable use of the natural resources of the area to promote sustainable economic and social development of the area's communities.
National park authorities
Following the Environment Act 1995, each English and Welsh national park has been managed by its own national park authority, a special-purpose local authority, since April 1997. Previously, all but the Peak District and the Lake District were governed by county councils; these were the first two national parks to be designated, were under the control of planning boards that were independent of county councils. Similar national park authorities have also been established for the Scottish parks under separate legislation.
Slightly over half of the members of each national park authority are appointees from the principal local authorities covered by the park; the remainder are appointed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (in England) or the Welsh Ministers (in Wales), some to represent local parish or community councils, others to represent the national interest. The Broads Authority also has members appointed by Natural England, Great Yarmouth Port Authority and the Environment Agency. The national park authorities and the Broads Authority are covered by regulations similar to those that apply to local councils.
The national park authority for each park addresses the stated aim in partnership with other organisations, such as the National Trust. In cases where there may be conflict between the two purposes of designation, the first (to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park) must take precedence under the Sandford Principle. This principle was given statutory force by section 62 of the Environment Act 1995, although there are no explicit provisions as to how wildlife is to be preserved. The national park authorities also have a duty to foster the economic and social wellbeing of communities in pursuit of these purposes.
Funding for national parks is complex, but the full cost of each park authority is funded from central government funds. In the past, this was partly paid for by local authorities and refunded to them from the government to varying degrees. In 2022/3, the 13 park authorities in England and Wales received around £65 million of central government funding.
Other organisations The UK's national parks are members of National Parks UK, which works to promote them, and to facilitate training and development for staff of all the parks.
Natural England is the statutory body responsible for designating new national parks in England, subject to approval by the Secretary of State; Natural Resources Wales designates new national parks in Wales, subject to approval by the Welsh ministers. All 15 UK national parks are represented by the Association of National Park Authorities, which exists to provide the park authorities with a single voice when dealing with government and its agencies. The Campaign for National Parks (formerly the Council for National Parks) is a charity that works to protect and enhance the national parks of England and Wales.
Legal designation National parks were first designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949; in England and Wales, any new national park is designated under this Act and must be confirmed by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. The 1949 Act came about after a prolonged campaign for public access to the countryside in the United Kingdom with its roots in the Industrial Revolution. The first 'freedom to roam' bill was introduced to Parliament in 1884 by James Bryce, but it was not until 1931 that a government inquiry recommended the creation of a 'National Park Authority' to select areas for designation as national parks. Despite the recommendation and continued lobbying and demonstrations of public discontent, such as the 1932 Kinder Scout mass trespass in the Peak District, nothing further was done until a 1945 white paper on national parks was produced as part of the Labour Party's planned post-war reconstruction, leading in 1949 to the passing of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act.
In England and Wales, as in Scotland, designation as a national park means that the area has been identified as being of importance to the national heritage and as such is worthy of special protection and attention. Unlike the model adopted in many other countries, such as the US and Germany, this does not mean the area is owned by the state. National parks in the UK may include substantial settlements and human land uses, which are often integral parts of the landscape; within a national park, there are many landowners including public bodies and private individuals.
Origins and growth
Archaeological evidence from prehistoric Britain shows that the areas now designated as national parks have been occupied by humans since the Stone Age, at least 5,000 years ago and in some cases much earlier.
Before the 19th century, relatively wild and remote areas were often seen simply as uncivilised and dangerous. In 1725, Daniel Defoe described the High Peak as "the most desolate, wild and abandoned country in all England."Defoe, Daniel. A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, Divided into Circuits or . (1724–26) However, by the early 19th century, romantic poets such as Byron, Coleridge and Wordsworth wrote about the inspirational beauty of the "untamed" countryside. Wordsworth described the Lake District as a "sort of national property in which every man has a right and interest who has an eye to perceive and a heart to enjoy" in 1810. This early vision, based in the Picturesque movement, took over a century and much controversy, to take legal form in the UK with the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949.
The idea for a form of national parks was first proposed in the United States in the 1860s, where national parks were established to protect wilderness areas such as Yosemite. This model has been used in many other countries since, but not in the UK.
After thousands of years of human integration into the landscape, Britain lacks any substantial areas of wilderness. Furthermore, those areas of natural beauty so cherished by the romantic poets were often only maintained and managed in their existing state by human activity, usually agriculture.
Government support is established By the early 1930s, increasing public interest in the countryside, coupled with the growing and newly mobile urban population, was generating increasing friction between those seeking access to the countryside and landowners. Alongside of direct action trespasses, such as the mass trespass of Kinder Scout, several voluntary bodies took up the cause of public access in the political arena.
In 1931, Christopher Addison (later Lord Addison) chaired a government committee that proposed a national park authority to choose areas for designation as national parks. A system of national reserves and nature sanctuaries was proposed:
However, no further action was taken after the intervention of the 1931 General Election.
The voluntary Standing Committee on National Parks first met on 26 May 1936 to put the case to the government for national parks in the UK. After World War II, the Labour Party proposed the establishment of national parks as part of the post-war reconstruction of the UK. A report by John Dower, secretary of the Standing Committee on National Parks, to the Minister of Town and Country Planning in 1945 was followed in 1947 by a Government committee, this time chaired by Sir Arthur Hobhouse, which prepared legislation for national parks and proposed 12 national parks. Sir Arthur had this to say on the criteria for designating suitable areas:
National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949
This Act was passed with all party support. The first ten national parks were designated as such in the 1950s in mostly poor-quality agricultural upland. Much of the land was still owned by individual landowners, often private estates, but there was also property owned by public bodies such as the Crown, or charities which allow and encourage access such as the National Trust. Accessibility from the cities was also considered important.
The Peak District, site of the Kinder Scout trespass, was designated the first national park in April 1951 under the Clement Attlee-led Labour administration. This was followed in the same year by the designations of three more national parks: the Lake District, Snowdonia (now Eryri) and Dartmoor. By the end of the decade, numbers of national parks had increased to ten, with the Pembrokeshire Coast, North York Moors, Yorkshire Dales, Exmoor, Northumberland and Brecon Beacons (now Bannau Brycheiniog) national parks all being designated.
Other areas were also considered; for example, parts of the coast of Cornwall were considered as a possible national park in the 1950s, but were thought to be too disparate to form a single coherent national park and were eventually designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) instead. The north Pennines were also considered for designation as a national park in the 1970s but the proposal was thought to be administratively too difficult because the area was administered by five different county councils.
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