Member of Parliament for The Cotswolds, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, has congratulated the newly appointed Chairman of the review of National Parks, Julian Glover – a writer and former Special Adviser at Number 10 and the Department for Transport.

 

Mr Glover will lead this national review to explore how our National Parks’ system can be improved and to assess whether there is scope for an expansion of this system.

 

Sir Geoffrey has been a vocal and passionate advocate for designating the Cotswolds AONB as a National Park and has worked closely with the Cotswolds AONB Board Chairman and Director, Liz Eyre and Martin Lane, to promote the merits and benefit of this proposal.

 

The AONB receives 23 million visitors a year, the third largest of any Protected Landscape and the same purposes, duty and governance structure as a National Park.

 

Sir Geoffrey, Mrs Eyre and Mr Lane visited the South Downs National Park Authority (SDNPA) earlier this year to gather evidence and to witness the parallels between the SDNPA and the Cotswolds AONB; both are about 2000 square km, have a major highway and National Trail running from end-to-end and are covered by 15 local authorities.

 

The MP recently met with local farmers to discuss National Park status for the Cotswolds and was pleased that a consensus of agreement was formed on this issue.

 

Sir Geoffrey informed Mr Glover of his desire to meet to discuss this matter in more detail and his intention to work with his 16 parliamentary colleagues who cover the AONB to call for a debate on this issue.

 

Photo: Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown meets with local farmers to discuss National Park status for the Cotswolds