Sir, – In your item on potential changes to national park boundaries (DST, May 8) you overlook the reduction of democratic rights for residents in those areas.
National park authorities are responsible for many aspects of management reserved to democratically elected county and district councils elsewhere, such as planning and rights of way.
National parks are run by quangos of appointed representatives and a recent consultation exercise by Defra on the need for elected members was never put to residents in the Yorkshire Dales and hence it appears it was assumed that we weren’t interested.
Surely there must be better ways of preserving the countryside than removing democratic rights from the people who live in it all the time?
JOHN LOADER Main Street, West Witton.
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