Agenda item

The Chair gave the following updates:

·         The Chair had attended the Campaign for National Parks Park Protector and Year of Green Action National Parks Awards ceremony on 10 July.Our nomination for the Skills Builder project was short-listed for these Awards but unfortunately did not win. Skills Builder is a pilot project funded by Big Lottery. It is a partnership between a rehabilitation company based in Nottingham (DLNR), the Peak District National Park Authority and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, it recruits offenders on probation onto a 12-week training programme of conservation-related activities.  The project was praised at the ceremony by Lord Gardiner who had visited the project and met some of the participants.

·         The Authority had recently launched the Hope Valley Explorer bus service to be operated by Stagecoach.  This is a seasonal bus service which will link Sheffield and Chesterfield to the Peak District with stops at rail stations in the Hope Valley area at times convenient for people arriving by rail.  The service will run as a pilot for 3 years and is a flexible hop-on, hop-off service.

·         An interim report on progress so far on the independent review of National Parks and AONBs by Julian Glover, due to submit a full report to the Government in the autumn, had been released earlier in the week.  The Chair had sent a link to the interim report by email to all Members. The interim report gave some interesting hints at what may appear in the final report, including a recommendation to create a new National Landscape Service, a clear belief that National Parks should be leading the national response to climate change, as well as some critical comments on governance.  It was noted that the deadline for comments on the review had closed but the Chair would check if comments on the interim report could be passed on.