National Parks.
Areas with their own planning authority and their own statutory purposes. Conservation comes first, and where the purposes conflict, conservation wins.
- Local-need housing where policy provides for it
- Reuse of traditional buildings
- Development supporting park purposes
- Major development without exceptional circumstances
- Open-market housing at scale
- Anything degrading the special qualities
National Parks have two statutory purposes: conserving and enhancing natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage, and promoting understanding and enjoyment of their special qualities. Where the two conflict, the Sandford principle gives priority to conservation.
The park authority is the local planning authority for its area, so both the policy framework and the decision-maker differ from the surrounding districts. Major development faces the same exceptional-circumstances test as National Landscapes.
How schemes actually fare inside this designation — approval rates, appeal survival, which authorities apply it hardest — needs the designation joined to the decision record. That join isn’t built, so those figures aren’t published here. We won’t estimate them.
Check who the planning authority actually is — in a park it is not the district council.