The Partnership's Plan - Lake District National Park

Welcome to the Partnership’s Plan
What is the Partnership’s Plan?
The Partnership’s Plan (The Plan) has to deliver the statutory purposes of National Parks so
let’s start by reminding ourselves what they are:
• To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of
National Parks and
• To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special
qualities of the National Parks by the public.
National Parks are cultural landscapes with a resident population, so National Park Authorities
also have a duty in delivering the purposes to ‘foster the economic and social well-being of
local communities within the National Park’.
All partners and stakeholders, not just the National Park Authority, need to know how they will
achieve the purposes. Many stakeholders in the National Park are public bodies that must
‘have regard’ to National Park purposes when carrying out their functions within the National
Park.
The Partnership’s Plan is the Management Plan for the National Park - the most important
document for a National Park. It tells everyone where we are heading, what the issues are and
how we are going tackle them with limited public funding. The National Park Authority has to
create a Management Plan every five years.
As the National Park’s Management Plan, then, the Partnership’s Plan:
• forms the over-arching strategy for the National Park during a period of significant financial
pressure on the public sector
• sets a Vision and outcomes which shows how National Park purposes and the associated
duty will be delivered and
• establishes the framework for all policy and activity in the National Park – coordinating and
integrating other plans, strategies and actions - particularly for the Partnership.
How did it all come together?
We began to create the The Plan in 2005. We asked many organisations and the general
public about a long term Vision for the National Park – how we would all like to see the Lake
District in 25 years. The new Lake District National Park Partnership adopted this Vision in
2006 as the foundation for the rest of the The Plan.
Since then the Partnership has worked together to create this plan and decide the actions it
will take over the next two years.
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