Opposition groups say they will keep fighting to save Peak District visitor centres

As previously reported, members of the authority voted last month to proceed with a “formal internal workforce consultation” over the “potential closing or repurposing” of centres in Bakewell, Castleton, Edale and the Upper Derwent Valley, and restructuring plans which leave 65 people at risk of redundancy.

The proposals have provoked anger and disbelief in some quarters, particularly where the centres serve as a focal point for tourism and footfall.

Castleton Historical Society (CHS) which maintains a museum s at its local centre, presented PDNPA chairman Andrew McCloy with a petition listing nearly 4,000 signatures objecting to the closure before delivering a forceful presentation to authority members at the decisive meeting on April 28.

On Wednesday, May 10, CHS representative Maria Kenyon reported a further meeting between the two organisations.

She said: “We were led to understand that the proposal to ‘repurpose’ Castleton visitor centre will go ahead, regardless of any further interventions that might be made. There is to be some provision for visitor information on site in what was described as a ‘touch point’, details of which were scant.

“Similarly, we were given some assurance, again with little detail, that some space might be found for the museum and the archive. We have asked for drawings of potential options. When these are to hand we will discuss and respond to PDNPA.”

She added: “We understand that tenders for the rental of the space will go out sometime after July 28, when members will approve the final proposals, and negotiations are expected to last up to six months. The centre is to remain open until November.

“Regrettably, we are forced to conclude that, despite our best efforts, the battle for our visitor centre may well have been lost, but the fight for the museum continues.”

An online petition organised by CHS remains open for signatures and will carry further updates from the campaign.

A PDNPA spokesperson said: “As CHS are aware, no final decisions will be taken until July 28 so it would be incorrect to suggest that any operational changes will be going ahead ‘regardless’.

“The authority has engaged with CHS at an early stage to discuss potential alternatives to the operations at Castleton – including the displaying of CHS artefacts – should the formal proposals be implemented.”

They added: “As these are initial conversations there is understandably no specific detail to the options being discussed, including how information may be presented to visitors in the future, for which no plans have yet been agreed.”

Elsewhere on Wednesday, trade union UNISON, which represents PDNPA staff, said the decision flew in the face of public opinion.

Dave Gorton, Derbyshire area organiser, said: “We have yet to find anyone in favour of the plans to destroy the visible face of the national park by closing the visitor centres – other than, it would seem, the chief executive and the members. Our public campaign will continue.”

While internal discussions over the plans have been taking place since February, the union is now questioning the credibility of that process, claiming that staff feedback was withheld from authority members.

Dave said: “We’re aware the chief executive told staff he was not going to submit their views or even a summary of them to the members before they took their decision to back his closure programme.

“Apparently, he said ‘even a summary would run into tens of pages and I am employed by the members to make judgements on their behalf.’ The phrase judge, jury and executioner springs to mind.”

The authority does not dispute that chief executive Phil Mulligan used those words during one of his internal presentations.

However, its spokesperson said: “Authority staff were given the opportunity to share their comments and feedback to the chief executive following an initial set of options that were put forward by the chief executive in February – this feedback process was not a formal consultation, but allowed the workforce to input their views.

“As a result, some 70 individual and collective responses were received from staff which were reviewed and collated personally by the chief executive before the final proposals were shared with members. Due to the sheer volume of responses, individual pieces of feedback were not presented to members.”

They added: “As these proposals have now been approved by members, a formal consultation process – alongside the relevant union and internal staff committee representatives – will take place for all colleagues affected in any way by the proposed restructure programme.

“The authority recognises that by the very nature of some of the changes being proposed, not all colleagues will agree with them and the decisions made may not reflect some of the views shared in the earlier feedback process. No final decisions on the proposals will be taken until the authority meeting at the end of July.”

Disagreement between the authority and the union has also surfaced over a grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which PDNPA received in March to underpin “the vital role that our national parks play in protecting our precious wildlife and landscapes and the importance they have for tourism, the regional economy, and public access.”

The £440,000 grant was not limited or restricted to any specific project or area of the PDNPA’s operations, leaving it to local leaders to decide how best to use it.

At the time, Mr Mulligan said the money would “support our programme of future investment as the authority seeks to become a more affordable, financially resilient organisation.”

However, it has now been announced that the money would be allocated to the restructuring plans which, alongside the redundancies, would see salaries increase in other parts of the organisation to help PDNPA fill statutory service roles where it has been struggling to recruit.

Dave said: “The authority plans to use that money to give pay rises to some staff while making many others redundant. UNISON, of course, supports our members getting a fair pay deal but not at the expense of others’ jobs and wrecking some of the fabric which makes the national park so popular.”

The PDNPA spokesperson responded by saying: “The recent Defra grant is a one-off payment to the authority and would not be supporting ongoing or future costs of pay rises across some salary grades, to bring the authority in line with similar local employers. These changes have been proposed following an independent pay analysis report.”

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