Tourism and Access, management plan

The Peak District Park Authority aims to create a park which is accessible to as many visitors to park as possible, where all people feel welcome.  The Park Authority believes strongly that such a goal for the park will ensure that more and more people recognise the importance of National Parks, as well feeling welcome to visit them, creating wider benefits to society as a whole.

As the most popular national park in the whole of the United Kingdom, the Peak District Authority understands the future of the park is pinnacle to such a large number of people from all across the country.  This means that decisions made regarding the park and its future are almost certain to impact a large number of people, hence highlighting the importance of making sure that the park authority pursues inclusive policies.

The first way in which the park authority aims to ensure the park continues to make an incredible contribution towards people’s lives is to ensure that tourism taking place within the park is sustainable.  The park aims to do this by managing all of the interlinked aspects of the park which make it both popular and enriching to all those that visit.  This process involves protecting both the natural environment of the park, as well as cultural assets.  It also requires the continued support of the park’s infrastructure, such as transport links to ensure that visitors continue to bring economic benefits to the park and its local communities.  Transport links must, however, satisfy the Sandford principle, which states that the main objective of the national park is to conserve and enhance the park itself, an objective that overrides any activity that brings about unmanageable environmental harm to the park.

The park authority therefore aims to increase the amount of visitors travelling on both public transport and by bike to reduce the environmental impact to the park.  The park authority does however still recognise the importance of private transport such as cars in certain instances, though would like to see the majority of visitors moving away from non-environmentally friendly modes of transport when possible.

The Peak District Park Authority understands that the best way to safeguard the future of the park is to increase the number of individuals who have access to the park, and who have an interest in protecting the park.  The park authority aims to do this by educating both communities in and around the Peak District as well as running a series of visitor centres which teach people about the culture and environment of the Peak District.  The eventual aim of such education is to build a connection between people, and the Peak District.