2011 highlights
2011 was a year of successes and new challenges
Take Back the Tracks
Our Take Back the Tracks campaign to stop off-roading damaging really took off in 2011. After months of co-ordinating and supporting a range of local user groups, we went all out with a big, well-publicised rally at Long Causeway in July. Our campaigning paid off towards the end of the year, with the Peak District National Park Authority reviewing and improving its policy on managing off-roading, and allocating significant funding to the problem.
National Planning Policy Framework
The Government published its consultation on the biggest shake-up of planning for over 50 years in the summer, and the shock waves reverberated around the countryside all year. We had grave concerns about about the pressure on our landscapes from more damaging development and battled to get the draft NPPF radically revised.
Renewable energy
This year we built on the research and work of our Peak Power hydro project. We also lobbied the Peak District National Park Authority to take a more positive policy towards renewable energy in its Core Strategy.
Planning applications
And of course, we continued with our core work checking and responding to planning applications in our area, including cases such as Cowdale Quarry near Buxton and the Hartington cheese factory. Our team of planning volunteers scrutinised 256 planning applications this year. Of these we commented on 29 in the Peak District and 17 in South Yorkshire. In the Peak District 67 percent of these went our way. In South Yorkshire 76 percent of these went our way.
