My 2017 started with meetings and discussions about a question which is often raised in the Moorlands: how do we maintain the beauty and unique nature of the Moorlands whilst making sure that our towns and villages are vibrant places to live and work? There can be a tension between wanting to conserve the Moorlands on the one hand, and the impact that development could have on our landscape.
Put very simply, we want villages that are living and keeping communities alive, not merely preserved in aspic. That means homes for families so that there are children to attend the local school, people living in our villages so that the bus route is viable, and places for people to work who will then use local facilities, ensuring the local shop or pub can stay open. We also need infrastructure to service these communities, whether this is transport or decent mobile phone and broadband coverage. Keeping our towns and villages alive means that they may need to develop and change - which can be difficult to accept.
Meeting the Peak District National Park with other local MPs last week, it is clear that those tensions are highest in our most beautiful areas. The Peak Park is currently running a consultation on how their planning policies affect the people who live and work both in and just outside the national park. I would urge Moorlanders to respond. About one third of the Moorlands lies within the Peak Park, but we are all affected by its policies. These include for example an assumption that no new employment sites are needed in the national park. They also state that as a matter of policy, the Peak Park will resist any new roads. I would like to hear your views on these policies, including how that sort of approach might affect those communities on the fringes of the national park which may find they are subject to additional burdens and obligations to meet the needs of residents of the Park.
I want to make sure that the Moorlands is the best it can possibly be as a place to live and work, whether that is in a town or village inside the national park or outside. The Peak Park has, since 1951, conserved what is best about the Peak District. Let's make sure it can keep doing that in the future.