Around a fifth of all staff working for the organisation that looks after the Peak District National Park could be affected by a restructure as a result of “unprecedented financial pressures”. The authority has blamed the government’s funding grant, saying they have experienced a real term cut of around 50% in the last decade.
They said the squeeze on funding coincides with more people using the national park and expectations on what the park should be delivering for nature, climate and wellbeing. A spokesperson for the authority said: “Whilst the exact number of posts affected will not be known until the conclusion of the consultation and restructure process, around 15-20% of the authority’s permanent, full-time workforce may be impacted.
“These figures may also be affected by factors such as voluntary redundancies elsewhere in the organisation. We anticipate that our current visitor centre network will reduce in size but with the majority of services remaining, and this will be confirmed following the consultation process. “
“The generous donor support remains in place and we are working closely with them throughout this process. That support has allowed us to carefully, and externally analyse the commercial viability of all of our operations (including bike hire services) to ensure that we are able to maintain operations into the future.”
The restructure could lead to changes to customer services and communications and a reduction in the size of community engagement, education and well-being services team.
Phil Mulligan, the authority’s chief executive said: “We are facing a very challenging financial landscape. The proposals we are having to consider are extremely difficult and upsetting for everyone. We are looking at potentially cutting or reducing some of our high profile and much valued programmes.
“None of us want to make these decisions but they cannot be avoided unless there is significantly better news from government on our funding.”