Chilterns wants National Park status

The Chilterns Conservation Board is to submit a case to Natural England for the area’s conservation status to be upgraded from an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty to a National Park. Chief officer Sue Holden told the board: “The Chilterns needs greater protection due to its location on the edge of Greater London, and of the new Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc. National Park status would contribute to this. The current protection for AONBs is, in theory, equal but it is not in practice, with the absence of statutory planning powers.” She said the Chilterns was facing “unprecedented change, directly from housing and infrastructure but also indirectly from growth in London and South East, increasing traffic”. “The Chilterns is probably the most accessible protected landscape in Europe, due to the extensive road, rail, Underground and rights of way network of the area.” Environment secretary Michael Gove has launched a review of England’s National Parks and AONBs (LTT 08 Jun).