About us
Codes of conduct
The Lake District National Park Authority looks after this unique corner of England, encouraging people to enjoy and understand its beauty and helping those who live and work here.
You can find out more about how we see the future of the National Park in Vision for the National Park.
What do we do?
Respecting the past
This does not mean keeping things in the past. It's more about taking things from the past into the future. Special projects include:
- bringing history alive for young people
- investing in our communities living in historic settlements to help them plan for the future through community planning, surveys and action on the ground
- helping people conserve buildings and special places
- advising on the management and protection of ancient trees
- providing grants to local communities to help them keep their community traditions
Caring for the present
The National Park has always relied on the people living and working in it. In more recent centuries people have visited here to relax, enjoy themselves and be inspired.
We work with different groups to balance their needs with those of the landscape. Sometimes this requires high-quality negotiating skills to overcome complex and challenging issues.
Our services include:
- giving information through our visitor information centres
- developing and maintaining access to land and water
- encouraging responsible use of the countryside
- organising and supporting events to celebrate the National Park and support the economy
- working to maintain our huge range of plant and animal species
Planning for the future
Our role in planning is not just to control development but to support the management of development with people - not alone.
Our staff spend a lot of time talking and planning projects with people. Planning for the future also includes our learning service. We want to promote skills amongst young people and for them to learn and return.
We are committed to:
- creating policies which help manage change in collaboration with everyone from individuals to parish councils
- making decisions on planning applications and advising people on how to comply
- running unique courses to inspire young people, promote learning about our heritage and develop life-long skills
- bringing organisations and volunteers together to ensure action takes place on the ground
How do we work?
Our staff include rangers and field works, advisers at our information centres, planners, ecologists and event organisers.
Three Directors and a Chief Executive form our Executive Board. They are based at our headquarters in Kendal.
We have 22 members who represent the public interest. About two thirds are elected local politicians. They make decisions on our work at committee meetings, and represent the National Park on other groups locally, regionally and nationally. They are led by the Chairman.
We are also supported in our work by our volunteers.
Nearly all our work is achieved through partnerships with other organisations. Our strategic partnership is called the Lake District National Park Partnership.
Contact us
You can find all our contact details on our Contact Us page.
Funding
Britain’s national parks are funded directly by Government grant from Defra (opens in new window), and receive no funding from council tax or other local taxes.
We get most of our money from the Government grant from Defra. About a third of our income comes from trading activities such as car parking, planning application fees and sales at Information Centres.
