Mr Fergusson encapsulated my feelings almost exactly. If the bill goes through and the line is drawn on the map—it will be drawn within two years anyway—that green band will be published on Ordnance Survey maps, and people will say, perhaps because of pressure at the existing park end, “We’re not going to Flotterstone today because there’s no space to park. Let’s go further south.”
The fact that the line has been drawn will attract people to the area and, as Mr Fergusson said, they will have expectations. Many will come out of curiosity, saying, “Ooh—I never realised this was here.” We would expect an increase in footfall—although that is neither here nor there—and we would expect nosy motorists to come up our road, perhaps because they will think that there is a reservoir at the top that it would be nice to see. As a result, there will be a slight increase in pressure, but the point is that there will be no one to manage it. My understanding is that the first section of the regional park arose because of public pressure—you might call it demand—with regard to managed space.
As for what happens from here, I do not know. I am worried about the prospect of an—admittedly not very large—intermediate cost to the councils, which, once the bill goes through, will be duty bound to carry out the consultation that appears not to have been carried out so far. They will have to contact every person with an interest in the land—land managers, households and so on—and all of that will cost money. I believe that the financial memorandum quotes a £20,000 cost, which I assume will be split between the councils, for that exercise. That is a small cost, but it will be only the start.
If the councils cannot manage to find funding or provide it themselves within two years, the line will be drawn anyway with nothing in the way of management to back it up. Managing a regional park requires rangers to be on the ground for most of the day, as was the case when the current park started up. We also worked longer hours. In the summer, for example, we worked until 8 o’clock at night; the park did not simply shut down at half past 4 in the afternoon. That was vital, because it allowed us to have a lot of face-to-face contact with the public and to educate them a bit more, albeit that the process was a slow one.