Two of the most popular national parks in England, the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District, are set to expand their territory to create the largest area of protected and continuous land for a national park in the country.
In 2012, Natural England, the government’s legal adviser on the protection of England’s nature, released variation orders to extend the land coverage of these two parks. After thorough analysis and public inquiry, the expansion is scheduled to start in August 2016.
The Yorkshire Dales, an upland area of the Pennines in Northern England, will be increased by almost 24 percent while Lake District, a mountainous region in North West England, will be increased by 3 percent. This extension will bring the parks near the M6 corridor.
The national parks have less than a year to make the changes and extend their territory.
“We’re going to think about what kind of improvements we might want to make to the rights of way network, to make sure that visitors to these fantastic new areas that have been announced today can walk with the same expectations that they have for rights of way in the rest of the Lake District National Park,” said Richard Leafe of Lake District National Park.
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