To ask Her Majesty's Government when the revised draft National Park Plan for the New Forest National Park will be produced; and how long the consultation on it will last. [HL4425]

Following an extensive consultation process on the draft National Park Plan during autumn last year, the New Forest National Park Authority carried out a further engagement process in the spring of this year. This involved an extensive programme of working groups and other meetings to look in detail at the issues which prompted most interest. The authority is now completing the analysis of all the comments that have been made and intends to take a revised National Park Plan to its authority meeting at the end of October.

Once approved by the authority, the core strategy component of the plan will be subject to a further minimum six week statutory consultation followed some months later by an independent public examination.