Successful year for others to follow

A Lake District partnership designed to ensure a more widespread involvement in managing the national park is being heralded as a beacon organisation for other national parks to follow.

The Lake District National Park Partnership was formed in 2006 and now has 22 organisations – including local councils, environmental groups, tourisms bodies and voluntary societies - involved and actively contributing to its work.

In its annual report, for the year June 2010 to June 2011, the Partnership says the past 12 months have been challenging, but it has "managed to ride this tide of change relatively successfully."

The Partnership meets quarterly and is independently chaired by Lord Clark of Windermere with all of its work guided by a Partnership Management Plan. Key areas of work during the last year has been centred on ensuring the national park works towards its vision of becoming an inspirational example of sustainable development.

The Partnership’s major achievements have included:

• securing the Lake District on the UK Tentative List for World Heritage Status;

• endorsing a proposal to make the Lake District a Fairtrade zone;

• being awarded nearly £1million towards the Windermere Reflections project;

• restoring more than 100 hectares of wetland habitat; and

• investing £180,000 of grants into local projects with a combined value of more than £900,000.

"The formation of the Partnership is an achievement in itself. It is unique amongst all English national parks. It continues to offer a model for other UK national parks to follow by helping organisations work together in different ways, especially important with current cuts in budgets," the report concludes.