asked the Secretary of State for the Environment how the designation of local nature reserve relates to the designation area of outstanding natural beauty in the priorities accorded by his Department to environmental preservation.

There is no direct relationship. Areas of outstanding natural beauty are designated by the Countryside Commission and confirmed by the Secretary of State under section 87 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, in recognition of their landscape quality. As such they are an instrument of national policy. A local nature reserve is a reserve which a particular local authority has seen fit to provide and manage as such—under section 21 of the same Act—

"in the interests of the locality".