'Czar' plan to save North East's uplands

Jun 15 2010 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

MEASURES to tackle the threats to the North's uplands while at the same time unlocking their potential are laid out in an inquiry's findings today.

The inquiry into the future of the uplands by the Commission for Rural Communities spent several days in Alnwick in Northumberland, hearing from a range of bodies as well as farmers, landowners and community groups.

One of the recommendations in its report out today is for the appointment of a powerful Uplands Minister, or czar.

One of the six commissioners was Mark Shucksmith, Professor of Planning at Newcastle University, who lives in Stocksfield in Northumberland. He said: “Surveys show that people value the uplands enormously but many perhaps do not realise that the uplands are not just there naturally – they have to be managed and looked after.”

The report states: “There needs to be a fundamental shift in the way the uplands are viewed. Rather than seen as areas of disadvantage, they should be considered for their high potential to offer significant public benefits. A new approach is needed which would balance the needs of the environment while maximising the economic potential.”

The uplands are a crucial part of the region, covering large areas of Northumberland and the North Pennines.

Prof Shucksmith said that the North’s uplands were inspirational landscapes important for leisure and tourism, as the source of rivers and water supply, as a provider of food, renewable energy, and peat bogs which locked up huge amounts of carbon.

They were also important culturally, not least for music like the Northumbrian pipes, ballads and folk songs.

But the current levels of subsidy support for hill farming was not enough. The threat was that farmers would stop working the uplands and areas would be abandoned.

The agri-payments scheme had to be revised to pay hill farmers more and make their holdings viable. “But sorting out farm payments is not enough on its own,” said Prof Shucksmith.

Farmers and land managers needed thriving, rural communities around them, and the conditions had to be created where new businesses could be set up.

Crucial to this was the need for affordable housing, especially for younger people so that ageing communities could renew themselves.

Prof Shucksmith said that council tax on second homes could be given to parish councils for affordable housing funds and land could be provided by public bodies such as the Ministry of Defence, Forestry Commission, and national parks. There should be incentives for landowners to provide building plots, and planning rules relaxed to allow some development and for the setting up of businesses.

Local councils should also carry our renewable energy audits in the uplands for schemes like community-owned wind turbines and hydro-power.

“The communities of the uplands have shown, in generation after generation, that they are resilient but they need the right sort of help,” said Prof Shucksmith.