New Forest: Environment Protection

Mr. Chope
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs with reference to the draft New Forest Recreation Management Strategy, if he will publish the evidence upon which the New Forest National Park Authority concludes that many people who live locally and use the New Forest take its tranquillity and high environmental quality for granted.

Huw Irranca-Davies
I understand that the New Forest National Park Authority’s evidence for this is already in the public domain, in the form of the following publications:

Survey of Recreation Visits to the New Forest National Park by Tourism South East with Geoff Broom Associates, prepared on behalf of the Countryside Agency in September 2005;

Interim statement of the special qualities for the New Forest National Park, paper number NFNPA 92 06, presented to the National Park Authority on 18 May 2006;

Future Matters consultation—a joint consultation between New Forest District Council, Changing Lives Partnership (the Local Strategic Partnership) and the National Park Authority, which took place in December 2006;

Statement of special qualities for the New Forest National Park, paper number NFNPA 191 07 presented to the National Park Authority on 28 June 2007.

Mr. Chope
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs which consultants were employed by the New Forest National Park Authority to advise on the draft New Forest Recreation Management Strategy; whether the process of appointment was subject to competitive tender; and if he will place a copy of the terms of reference given to the consultants in the Library.

Huw Irranca-Davies
I understand that the consultants employed were ‘Land Use Consultants’, based in Bristol and that the contract for this work was subject to competitive tender. I will arrange for a copy of the invitation to tender and the specification for the development of the National Park Plan and the Recreation Management Strategy to be placed in the Library.