(AGENPARL) – Tue 23 September 2025 Please find our latest news release below.
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Andrew Fagg
Media Officer
Working hours: Mon | Tue | Fri
http://www.yorkshiredales.org.uk
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Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority
Yoredale | Bainbridge | Leyburn | DL8 3EL
News Release
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Referendum sees “community taking charge”
Bainbridge, 23 September 2025
People in the Craven parish of Clapham cum Newby have voted overwhelmingly in favour of adopting a “Neighbourhood Plan”.
In a referendum held last Thursday, 153 people voted “yes” to the question, “Do you want North Yorkshire Council and Yorkshire Dales National Park to use the Neighbourhood Plan for Clapham cum Newby to help it decide planning applications in the neighbourhood area?”
North Yorkshire Council declared the poll result on Friday.
“It shows the community is taking charge,” said parish councillor and farmer John Dawson.
The Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Plan will now be used to help determine planning applications and guide planning decisions in the Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Area. It is only the third neighbourhood area with land inside the National Park to have adopted a Neighbourhood Plan, following Upper Eden and Gargrave, and builds on the work of the 2008 Parish Plan.
The plan has policies to protect “non-designated assets”, such as former estate worker cottages; it contains a “style guide” for new developments; and it identifies more than a dozen green spaces, including the grassy centre of the public car park, to be conserved.
John Dawson said: “Clapham sits uniquely in the dales because of the Ingleborough estate; it is still partly an estate village. The estate owns about forty of the houses, which historically has meant families can move in.
“We’re also looking forward, and that’s what we’ve demonstrated with the neighbourhood plan. It shows the community taking charge. We’ve lost the school. We lost the shop. But the community came together [to reopen the shop] and now there are 40 volunteers running it.
“People do want to have a say in planning. We don’t want the unique character of this parish spoiled with houses in the wrong place or built in the wrong style. We want to attract employment that adds to the community. Tourism is where it hinges.”
Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Plan steering group member, Anne-Marie Bond, said: “I came here nine years ago. Before then I used to come regularly with my husband and my son. We’d come on the train from Leeds. Everybody would chat to you. You felt the character.
“When we got the chance to retire here, I volunteered for Broadband for the Rural North, which was bringing fast broadband to the village, and from that got involved in the neighbourhood plan. Everybody has a can do attitude here.”
Steering group member Robert Klottrup added: “When we did the surveys, a lot of people kept saying, ‘We want to have a voice’. This, the neighbourhood plan, is a way of facilitating that.
“Clapham is a great place to live. You walk down the street and you know everybody. The other thing we’ve discovered talking to people is the high number of people working from home. There’s a tremendous number of young people moving back to the parish.”
Maria Farrar said it was encouraging that the school bus taking children from the parish to the primary school in Austwick was now full.
Member Champion for Sustainable Development at the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, Richard Foster, said: “The Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Plan policy on designated heritage assets really stands out. The plan identifies buildings and other heritage assets which are not listed or scheduled but which are important to the heritage of the parish and which local people want to protect from harmful development and ideally enhance.
“It’s a really positive thing to have done. Neighbourhood planning provides communities with the power to establish their own policies to shape future development in and around where they live and work.”
The designated Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Area corresponds to Clapham cum Newby Parish and is located within two Local Planning Authority Areas, the Yorkshire Dales National Park and North Yorkshire.
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Note to Newsdesk
Images:
1 George Sheridan and dog Evie, John Dawson, Robert Klottrup, Anne-Marie Bond, Jill Gates and Maria Farrer on 19 September, the day after a referendum on the Clapham cum Newby Neighbourhood Plan. They are outside a former estate worker cottage, one of the non-designated heritage assets protected by the neighbourhood plan. George, Robert, Anne-Marie and Jill took part in the neighbourhood plan steering group, while John and Maria are parish councillors.
2 The group outside the volunteer-run village shop. Surveys carried out by the neighbourhood plan steering group suggest that the community regards the shop as the village’s most important asset.
1. The Yorkshire Dales National Park is one of 15 National Parks in the UK. It is administered by the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, which has two main purposes: “to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage” and “to promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park”. In carrying out these purposes, the Authority has a duty “to seek to foster the economic and social well being of local communities”. The National Park Authority comprises 25 members, made up of unitary, county and city councillors and members appointed by the Secretary of State for the Environment to represent parishes or in recognition of their specialist skills or knowledge.
1. All of our work is guided by the vision for the future of the National Park set out in the Yorkshire Dales National Park Management Plan: “Through their passion for this special place, local people and businesses will keep the Yorkshire Dales National Park a thriving area. Its unique cultural landscape will be treasured for its stunning scenery, exceptional heritage and wonderful wildlife, and every year millions of people will be inspired to be a part of it.”