Exmoor staff face pressure after park fund change

A SHOCK change to funding for national parks has put Exmoor at a ‘crunch point’.

- BRADLEY GERRARD

Exmoor National Park was told only weeks after setting its annual budget that the government wants to revamp how it funds national parks.

The change, which means that Westminster is reducing the park’s day-to-day spending budget and shifting more cash into the capital budget that funds larger projects, could put pressure on areas such as staffing and equipment.

The Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA), the body that oversees the park, heard that the change could put the organisation in a difficult position in years to come.

“We are in pretty uncharted territory in this meeting as I don’t think that in the past 20 years, we have ever had to come back to members in the first month of a financial year with a change in the projected income figures for that year of such a significant nature,” said the park's chief financial officer Ben Barrett.