Parking and access in National Parks etc.

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Banff has some of the same issues too Stone - Lake Louise has a giant parking lot, an even more giant park and ride (they commandeer the ski parking for this), and still if you show up in summer in the middle of the day without having booked your park and ride you're stuffed. They also have a Glastonbury-style thing where camping reservations for the parks-owned camps open in Jan and for popular places are gone in a day - our brother in law and his family live that way and plan their whole summer in Jan to get the reservations they want. For back country multi-day hikes it sounds even harder as you have to get multiple limited spots in the right order on consecutive days before one of them disappears 😂
 
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As I said, I think it was the Highways Authority. Possibly DCC. Nothing to do with the NPA or NT, and as I said, no consultation with them or users.
I think 'National Highways' are responsible for motorways and main A roads, so most likely the local council in this case
 
I chose to climb in Japan in the recent cold weather - maybe saw zero other people over 2 days in a secret mountain gorge on the north side of Mount Fuji. The 62 hour total journey was scarcely more inconvenient for the average Manchester-dweller, and it seemed a better idea than rubbing shoulders with 4 people in between 18 hours driving for a round trip to Skye.
Very funny. Well, it was a 7-day trip. The Cairngorms were also nice and uncrowded. For non-bellends, the underlying point being every location and activity choice has its issues and some of these can't be changed (or you're shouting into the sky trying to).. So there are unavoidable consequences to living in any place.
Outdoor lover but want to live in a city right next to a NP?.. then at certain times of year that NP will be busy, and in some combo's of weather, time of week and time of year it will be insanely busy to the point of taking a lot of the appeal away. This can't be changed (it can if you literally stop people from going.. not really desirable).
Same for which activities you choose to do... I've occasionally found myself thinking some of the endless debate about the peak on here seems a bit missing the big picture - you live in a crowded part of a crowded country and partake in the most popular form of climbing. Us weirdo's who enjoy mixed climbing and empty places rarely struggle with crowded places- relatively hardly anyone does it so it's easy to find solitude. The peak is lovely.. when its quiet. I try to avoid it when it isn't. Same for Eryri, Lakes etc.
 
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Even in the Peak, it isn't hard to find solitude if you look beyond the honeypot crags.

When the conditions are perfect on a weekend, there is usually still plenty of deserted crags if you are willing to do a bit of walking.

I was surprised that we had 4 days in Chironico in early December, in perfect sending conditions, without seeing a single soul. Now to work out how to rearrange my life so that I can afford for Ticino to become my local area...
 
Taking Mam Tor specifically, all of the land surrounding Mam Nick highway is owned by the National Trust, including the car park - National Trust Land Map . So actually *The National Trust* could do something, if they wanted. No-one needs to "buy 5 fields", they already own them. But the NT probably already do OK from the £8 daily charge from their car park there. If people want to park on the road potentially blocking it is that their problem? No, that's the council's. Perhaps the council will do what they did at Curbar Gap - double yellows down the road, not in consultation with the landowner (NT again). Which will be roundly ignored, as per Curbar. As an aside part of Mam Tor's popularity is due to social media sunrise pics, and also the fact it is very accessible.

In the case of Mam Tor and the A623 specifically, most of it IS already double yellow lined. There are also some marked bays/laybys on the west bound carriageway and all the way down the Old Mam Tor Road. When it is all snow covered though I don't know whether double yellows are enforceable and looking at that BBC news photo, plenty of those cars could have parked in the laybys but I would imagine the drivers were reluctant to for fear of getting stuck, so chose to block the carriageway. As much as I agree that parking is difficult, it's not hard to see when one is parking like a twat.

As to a general solution, I have no idea. The way the Peak is, it's popularity, location and ownership, make it a very tricky situation to solve.
 
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@abarro81 , I suppose I was remembering a visit to Canada 15years ago and since then, crowd pressures have also increased there from what you say :( .
 
Or in the case of Moraine Lake, you can only access it by shuttle from Lake Louise, concentrating all parking issues in one well tarmacced location..
 
Here's the meat of a letter I submitted as part of a response to the 2022 PDNPA consultation around the extension of parking charges at Stanage and introduction at other PDNPA car parks. It seemed to me that the decision had been firmly made by the time the proposals were put out for consultation:
Extension of charging to new sites

We understand the pressure to generate revenue in the face of tight financial condition. However:

  • The proposed additional charges are not presented within a wider strategy for sustainable transport. As such they would principally reduce nett emissions within the park only by means of pricing the least able to pay out of visiting, and therefore cannot be considered sustainable if the Park authorities’ wider remit is taken into account.
  • The consultation does not explain what benefits will accrue to the sites in question as a result of introducing charges. Hypothecation of some form would help to remove the impression that parking charges will simply go to fill a hole created by shrinking park funding, and act as the infrastructure for repeat rounds of charge increases to fill ever larger holes going forward.
  • Arguments as to why the changes are fair, appropriate, proportionate, and sufficiently targeted should be made to the public as part of a broader consultation prior to moving forward. Any effective public pushback which would act in support of the PDNA is unlikely to come if unsustainable funding decisions are transferred to park users via levies such as parking fees, with minimal explanation or consideration of the broader implications.

Stanage

With regard to the changes proposed at these sites please see the letter submitted by the Peak area of the BMC. Also the BMC commends without reservation the commentary submitted to this consultation by the Stanage Forum Steering Group. In particular we strongly oppose the introduction of payed parking at Dennis Knoll.

Concerning other listed sites

Additional to the general comments:

Barber Booth

Introduction of payed parking here will even further limit the options for those unable (or unwilling) to pay for parking to access Kinder Scout.

Some compensating increase in parking provision on the A57 side of Kinder would be beneficial in offsetting this and represent a broader, more balanced consideration of user interests in this area.

Derwent Outlook

Again, some compensating measure to improve general access in the area such as the re-introduction of the park and ride service along the dam road to King’s Tree would be welcome.
 

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