Agenda item

Chief Executive Report

Meeting of National Park Authority, Friday 22nd May 2026 10.00 am (Item 39/26)

Minutes:

The Chief Executive presented their report to Members which included the following updates since the report was published:

• There had been 5 Member vacancies. 2 Local Authority appointments had been confirmed but details were not received in time to have attended today’s meeting, with a further notification still to be received. The Parish Forum needed to go through their process to appoint their Parish Member, with the Secretary of State recruitment due to happen in the summer through to autumn.

• The Chief Executive highlighted the positive progress on funding news under section 2.8.1. and provided some updates on the 75th anniversary including:

- Commemorative ales called ‘75’ were being launched later in the year

Northern Rail were naming a train ‘Peak District 75’ to be launched from Manchester Piccadilly

- The open top sightseer bus service starting on Saturday 23 May would carry the 75th logo

- The Minister with responsibility for National Parks would be attending the report launch being held at Aldern House in the summer, which had been commissioned by the 4 National Parks commemorating their 75th anniversary in 2026.

Comments and questions from Members:

• The increase in car park capacity and associated revenue was welcomed.

• Mary Creagh was advised as the Minister for Nature at DEFRA who would be attending the report launch in the summer.

• The issue of wildfires in the Peak District had been mentioned in several reports. The PDNPA don’t have enforcement powers, but High Peak Borough Council were considering delegation of powers to the National Park Authority. Training and resource capacity would need to be considered if this was the case.

• A recent report from the University of Leeds on the impact of large-scale fires on communities in and around the National Park had been published.

• The Peak District Fire Operations Group (FOG) co-ordinated wildfire response through partnership working. Communications were less co-ordinated where organisations and groups had different focuses.

• The most common cause of fires on upland areas was mainly through human activity.

• More restrictions were now in place for controlled burns. Land owners had different views on how best to manage moorland areas.

• It had been observed that although there were high quality toilet facilities at Millers Dale, paper was being dropped on the floor as there was no bin provided.