The Peak District National Park
Collecting Information
Population
Age Structure
Pressure for development
Working In The Peak District National Park
Business in the Peak Park
Structure of business
Manufacturing and Service industries
Agricultural (Farming)
Mineral Extraction
The Current Employment Situation

The Peak District National Park

The Peak District National Park consists of 555 square miles of uplands at the south end of the Pennines, surrounded by fertile lowlands and dense urban development. The current settlement pattern consists of around 3,000 farms, two towns (Bakewell and Tideswell), 100 villages and hamlets and a resident population of around 38,100 people.

The boundary of the Peak District National Park was drawn to include land of particular conservation value and the Park itself includes parts of 12 different local authorities. The largest part of the Park is in Derbyshire, including the parts of the districts of High Peak, Derbyshire Dales and North East Derbyshire. In the west the Park includes an area of Staffordshire (Staffordshire Moorlands district) and of Cheshire (Macclesfield district). To the north east is an area of South Yorkshire (districts of Sheffield and Barnsley). In the north, a small part of West Yorkshire (Kirklees district) and in the north west, part of Greater Manchester (Oldham district) is included.

The National Park Authority is made up of members from each of the local authorities included in the Park, as well as representatives from each of the parish councils and members representing interest groups such as conservation, who are appointed by Central Government.

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Collecting information

A Census of Population takes place at every 10 years. This is a count of all the people living in Great Britain together with some information about where they live, their age and their occupation. The last Census took place in April 1991.
The Census is the best source of data on population change and the social and economic conditions of the people. The areas on which the Census data is based do not however correspond to the boundaries of the Peak Park, so in some cases the data has had to be estimated.
We cannot compare the Census of 1991 directly with the figures for 1981 as some of the boundaries changed between the two dates and there were changes in the way the information was collected.

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Population

The resident population has remained fairly stable over the last 30 years at around 38,000, with a small rise between 1971 and 1981 and a loss of around1.4% between 1981 and 1991. There were around 38,100 people living in the Park in April 1991.
There were 0.26 people per hectare living in the Park, compared with a national average of 2.4. This low density reflects the fact that about 35% of the Park is moorland, inhabited mainly by sheep and grouse.


There are also no large towns. Bakewell, the largest settlement, has a population of 3,818 (Bakewell parish). There are only 7 parishes wholly in the Park where the population is over 1,000 people.

Age structure of the population

There were around 7,000 children of school age or below living in the Park in 1991 (18.2% of the population compared with 21.4% in England as a whole). Within this, the proportion of children under school age rose between 1981 and 1991, while the proportion of children of school age fell, following the national trend.

60.1% of the residents (about 23,300 people) were of working age, a similar proportion to that in England as a whole. This proportion has increased by 2.5% since 1981 (in line with the national trend). Between1981 and 1991 there was an increase of just under 1% in people of pensionable age (women over 60 and men over 65) to 8,200. This followed the national trend.

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Age structure

Changes in Population

The average household size fell from 2.7 persons per household in 1981 to 2.5 persons in 1991. The proportion of households with children fell from 30.8% in 1981 to 24.5% in 1991. This reflects the change in age structure with an increasing number of elderly people living in the Park.

Village services

Despite the loss of 60% of village general foodstores between 1965 and 1990, the majority of villages in the Park with a population of over 250 still had a general foodstore in 1990. Rural services such as schools, post offices and health services have been weakened by changing patterns of work. However, the provision of services in the villages of the Park is generally above the national average. This was confirmed by the National Park Authority's survey of Village Services in the Park 1989/90. The survey did show however that the provison of bus services to the villages was lower than the national average.

The higher than average provision of services probably reflects the fact that, although the population of many villages is very small, a large number of tourists visit the villages. This can make services such as a shop or pub viable even in a small community. In this way local residents benefit from the many visitors; estimated currently at above 22 million visits a year.

Housing

Between 1976 and 1992 a total of 1,745 dwellings were built in the Peak National Park, a rate of 122 per year. The housing stock in the Park was around 16,500 dwellings in 1991.

A low proportion of households in the Park rent houses from the local authorities (10.1% compared with a national figure of 21.2%) or from a housing association (1.2% compared with a national figures of 3.1%). A high proportion of people (73.3%) own their own houses.

Changes in housing situation

Between 1981 and 1991 there was a loss of 575 council houses available for rent and a loss of 650 privately rented houses. This, and rising house prices, has meant a reduction in housing available for people on below average incomes.

A small proportion of houses in the Park are either second homes or holiday lets. At 4.8%, this is high compared with 1.3% nationally. The number of such houses rose significantly between 1981 and 1991, again reducing the number of affordable houses available for local residents.

Starter homes, Low Bradfield

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Pressure for development

The Park Authority can limit new building through the Planning system. The policy is to limit new building to the level needed to keep the population at around the present level and to encourage the following types of building:

• Affordable housing for local needs
  
• Acceptable conversions (eg unlisted barns in villages)
  
• Houses for countryside/agricultural workers
  
• Developments that will enhance the Park
  

There is at present a large reserve of possible developments where planning consent has already been granted. This reserve, together with new development for local need, is likely to result in an average of some 100 dwellings per year over the next 10 years.





The Park Authority encourages the building of affordable housing to meet local needs. Between March 1991 and March 1995, planning permission was given for 846 dwellings - including 166 dwellings for local needs built by individuals or housing associations.


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Working In The Peak District National Park

The Aims of the National Park Authority

Within the overall objectives of National Parks, the Park Authority seeks "to maintain economically viable and socially balanced village and farming communities". New buildings or the extension of existing buildings must be of a suitable scale and normally within or on the edge of villages. New development must be seen as part of the Park as a whole and must be in keeping with the objectives of National Parks (see Fact Zone1 ).

Homeworking is encouraged, as is diversification that helps to sustain farming. Mineral extraction on the other hand is not felt to be justified purely as a source of employment.

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Business in the Peak Park

The 1989 survey found an estimated 4322 businesses in the Park. The majority of these (63%) are farms with 1109 full time holdings and 1629 part time holdings. There were 115 manufacturing businesses. Although it is a high profile industry, less than 1% of businesses were involved in mineral and rock extraction. 430 businesses were retail outlets (shops), 140 were road hauliers, 118 were directly tourist related and a further 760 were in the service sector (including construction, professional and public services).

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Structure of business

The majority of businesses in the Park (85%) were found to be small, employing between one and five full time staff. A further 11% of businesses employed between 6 and 20 full time staff. However, the 4% of businesses with 21 or more full time staff employed 57% of the workforce.

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Manufacturing and service industries

During the last ten years there has been a steady growth in the small business section. Between 1977 and 1991 there were almost 330 planning applications for manufacturing service, warehousing and office development. 285 of these were approved. 34 factories and warehouse units have been built by the Rural Development Commission in Bakewell, Youlgreave, Tideswell, Longnor, Warslow and Waterhouses.

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Agricultural (farming)

The 2,700 farms in the Peak National Park rely more on direct input from the family than in most other parts of Great Britain. The farms are small, with 95.3% of farms under 100 hectares and 50.1% of them under 20 hectares.

More than half the farms in the Park are classed as part time - that is they provide work for less than 250 man days in a year. This means that many farmers must also have another job to earn a living. Most of the full time farms are either dairy farms or livestock (sheep and beef cattle) farms. In the U K as a whole one third of farms are arable (growing crops such as wheat or barley) but these hardly exist in the Park.

Between 1977 and 1990 there was a reduction of 19% in the number of dairy farms and an increase of 37% in the number of livestock farms.

In the U K as a whole employment on farms has decreased since 1977. However in the Peak District agricultural employment grew from 5,400 jobs in 1977 to 5,800 in 1988, and then fell back to the 1977 level in 1991. Since 1977, the number of full time workers on farms has decreased, while the number of part time workers has increased. It is interesting to note that in the 1991 Census, only 1,400 residents regarded their job as farming with a further 550 people working as agricultural labourers. It is likely that this reflects the large number of part-time farmers with an alternative job.

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Mineral extraction

The mineral industry consists of limestone quarrying with some extraction of vein minerals such as fluorspar and small amounts of clay and shale extraction. The 1991 Census indicated that there were around 1,500 jobs in mineral extraction (mainly full time). Employment increased during the 1980s (by 26% between 1986 and 1990) and then dropped again by 10%.

Mineral extraction provides over 1,500 jobs

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The current employment situation

The 1991 Census indicated that about 16,800 of the Park's residents were in work. About half of these worked in the Park. About 6,500 residents commuted to the cities and towns surrounding the Park and around 4,250 people commuted into the Park to work. The Census of population indicated that there were about 12,600 jobs in the park, broken down by industry as follows:-

The major employer was the service sector (which includes tourist related jobs, shops and restaurants plus other services such as garages or plumbers). However, one person may have more than one job (e.g. a farmer may also provide tourist accommodation and road haulage).

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