IndyWales & National Parks

Wales currently has three national parks:

• Eryri (aka. Snowdonia) – Wales’s largest national park at just over 2,100sqkm. Covers the majority of Gwynedd and the western fringe of Conwy. It’s said to welcome around 4million visitors a year. About 26,000 people lived within the boundaries as of 2020².
• Bannau Brycheiniog (aka. Brecon Beacons) – Covers a little over 1,300sqkm. While the majority of the park lies within Powys, its boundaries cross into 6 other local authorities. It’s the most populated of the three national parks, with just under 40,000 residents as of 2020². It welcomes around 4.4million visitors a year.
• Pembrokeshire Coast – Wales’ smallest (629sqkm) and least-populated Welsh national park, with 22,500 residents as of 2020². It lies entirely within Pembrokeshire, covering the majority of the coast as well as the Daugleddau estuary. Again, it’s said to welcome around 4million visitors a year.

There are plans for a fourth national park which would encompass the Clwydian Range Area of Outstanding National Beauty (AONB) and Dee Valley:

Natural Resources Wales (NRW) is leading the work, with expectations the area will be designated as a National Park before the end of the Sixth Senedd (2026).

National parks are a legal designation, usually because they have a pristine/largely untouched landscape, cultural importance and/or are important for conservation purposes.

National Park Authorities

Each national park is administered by a dedicated National Park Authority.

National Park Authorities are made up of a mix of county councillors (from constituent local authorities) and members appointed by the Welsh Government. It’s a paid role, with park authority members eligible for a stipend unless they already receive a senior salary from their respective council (i.e. as a local authority Cabinet member).

National Park Authorities are responsible for:

• Acting as a planning authority. They decide on planning applications within the boundary of the national park (in the same way as a council planning committee). They’re also required to produce a Local Development Plan for the park area (see also: How Wales Works – Local Development Plans: Why do we need them?).
• Overseeing conservation, biodiversity and wildlife projects.
• Visitor management, warden services and maintaining rights-of-way/accessibility.
• Acting as a liaison between residents, businesses (including farmers), landowners and other agencies.

The Welsh Government (via Natural Resources Wales) has some direct on-the-ground responsibilities, such as woodlands management (where applicable) and enforcing environmental laws.

The Welsh Government provides up to 75% of funding for National Park Authorities through a mix of grants and a levy on constituent local authorities.

The remainder comes from income generation (i.e. visitor charges, like car parking). A 2023 Audit Wales report suggested National Park Authorities need to do more to diversify their income, with a “lack of capacity” within the authorities to “pursue new income streams”³.

A further Audit Wales report⁴ – published only weeks before this piece – concluded that while the National Park Authorities provided a “clear framework for governance”, there was “limited accountability and inconsistencies in how elected member (representatives) are nominated”.

Closely related to (but distinct from) national parks are Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs).

AONBs have similar protections, planning restrictions and legal status as national parks, but don’t have a dedicated authority. They’re mostly administrated directly by local authorities, with input from a board or equivalent – which might include residents.

What issues are worth considering?

The difference between a National Park and AONB – Should any area of natural beauty or scientific importance be treated as a national park by default? A 2019 report published in England recommended renaming AONBs as “National Landscapes” and bringing some of the administrative functions of national parks and AONBs together.

The size/scope of national parks – Are the current (and future) national parks too big? The minimum size to be considered a “national park” under internationally recognised criteria⁵ is 1,000 hectares of contiguous land (just 10sqkm). Having a lower minimum size may enable smaller, locally significant “landscapes of note” to become national parks.

Ownership and Management – As noted by Audit Wales, is the current National Park Authority model outdated? The Welsh Government, Natural Resources Wales, landowners and constituent local authorities all have skin in the game. England, Scotland and Wales are almost unique in that national parkland remains in private ownership.

Economy vs Environment – National parks can act as a form of economic fossilisation. They restrict what can or can’t be done in a given area to preserve it, in the main, for tourists rather than the people that live and work there. That said, the preservation and conservation element is vital; it’s how that can be balanced with industrial developments like renewable energy generation, maintaining productive upland farming and providing more affordable housing for locals.

The impact of overtourism – Issues here include more obvious ones such as second homes, as well as more localised issues such as public transport links, parking and a lack of visitor facilities (like toilets). Other related issues include the sparse nature of the national parks and the subsequent over-reliance on volunteers for local emergency and rescue services. The three national parks hire wardens, but there’s a case to be made for full-time uniform “National Parks Service” (or equivalent) given the amount of land involved and the difficult topography.

2. StatsWales. “Population estimates by year and national park”. Available at: https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue/Population-and-Migration/Population/Estimates/National-Park/PopulationEstimates-by-Year-NationalPark
3. Audit Wales (19th September 2023). “Income Diversification for National Park Authorities in Wales”. Available at: https://www.wao.gov.uk/publication/income-diversification-national-park-authorities-wales
4. Audit Wales (25th April 2024). “Governance of National Park Authorities”. Available at: https://www.audit.wales/publication/governance-national-park-authorities
5. Nature Scot, National Park Stakeholder Advisory Group (August 2022). “National Park Commission Paper SAG 2-2 – Developing criteria for the evaluation of new Park proposals” (Annex 1). Available at: https://www.nature.scot/sites/default/files/2022-08/National%20Park%20Stakeholder%20Advisory%20Group%20-%20Meeting%202%20-%20Paper%202-2%20-%20Developing%20criteria%20for%20the%20evaluation%20of%20new%20Park%20proposals%20-%20August%202022.docx