Natural England

The North Pennines Partnership has 27 members from a range of public, private and voluntary sector bodies across the area. It also elects two seats bi-annually from an AONB Forum.  In addition, there are a number of thematic working groups covering access and recreation, marketing and promotion, land management and nature conservation, and the historic environment.

In December 2002, the newly enlarged staff unit moved to offices in Stanhope, Weardale.  They are currently producing a new AONB management plan on behalf of the local authorities.  To find out more about the work of the Partnership visit their website www.northpennines.org.uk

Statutory policies   

All the area's nine local authorities include AONB specific policies in their development plans. These vary in their robustness and one of the goals of the AONB management plan (currently in production) is to seek the strengthening of these policies and the promotion of consistency across administrative boundaries. Effort is being made to raise awareness of the needs of the AONB through regional strategies and plans, notably Regional Spatial Strategies in the North East and North West.   

The AONB Partnership also seeks to influence the non statutory plans and strategies of other organisations, including those relating to conservation, tourism and rural economic development.

A landscape assessment for the AONB was published by the then Countryside Commission in 1990. (CCP 318). 

Two design guides have been produced, 'Agricultural Buildings Design Guide' (1999) and 'Good Practice in the Design, Adaptation and Maintenance of Buildings' (2000) and these have been adopted as Supplementary Planning Guidance by several of the area's local authorities. A Lead Mining Sites Conservation Strategy was produced in early 2001 and was followed by a Marketing and Sustainable Tourism Strategy later that year.   

The AONB Partnership is currently producing a new statutory Management Plan to cover the period 2004-2009 in line with Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 requirements, a Guidance Document on the Management of Roads in the AONB and an Interpretation Strategy. The Partnership is also working with the British Geological Survey on the first Geodiversity Action Plan for a UK protected landscape and with other partners on a North Pennines Biodiversity Action Plan.

A range of organisations have ownership or direct management influence over large areas of the North Pennines; including Northumbrian Water which owns 12 reservoirs; the Ministry of Defence with 650 acres of ranges; and English Nature which manages three National Nature Reserves (Upper Teesdale, Moor House, and Derwent Gorge & Muggleswick Woods) and has agreements with landowners and tenants on 63 SSSIs.   

The large moorland reserve of Geltsdale in the north-west of the AONB is managed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and other conservation bodies own areas of land within the AONB, notably the County Wildlife Trusts of Cumbria, Durham and Northumberland, the Woodland Trust, which owns Dufton Ghyll Wood in Cumbria, and the National Trust which owns Allen Banks and some of the extensive Allendale woodlands. The County and District Councils are also owners and managers of significant areas of the North Pennines, their countryside, landscape or ecology sections are active in the conservation of the AONB, providing direct management, support to landuse planners, advice and funding. East Cumbria Countryside Project has a long track record of successful land management in partnership with other organisations to conserve landscapes and wildlife in the area and to help people enjoy and understand the countryside. 

The North Pennines AONB Partnership, through its Staff Unit, aims to co-ordinate effort for the conservation and enhancement of the AONB through producing and supporting the implementation of the AONB Management Plan.