The Countryside Management Service

In 1983 a Land Management Study, commissioned by the AONB Joint Parish Committee and the Countryside Commission (as it was then known), made a number of detailed recommendations concerning land management and administration in the AONB. The Study strongly advocated the formation of a charitable trust, employing a full-time Project Officer, to bring resources together for countryside management purposes and to implement the Study's recommendations.

In September 1984 a Countryside Management Project, sponsored by the Countryside Commission, the local authorities and parish councils in the area commenced work. The day-to-day work of the Project was supervised by the Countryside Management Officer, Jeff Redgrave, who was employed on behalf of the participants in the Project by Lancaster City Council for three years. During this period, the role of the Countryside Management Officer involved considerable development work, identifying interested parties within the area and forming the Arnside/Silverdale AONB Landscape Trust.

Jeff Redgrave, having completed his three-year contract, moved on to other work. The local authorities agreed to continue sponsorship of the Project and a new Countryside Management Officer, Ian E Henderson, was appointed in April 1988. During this period the Countryside Management Project began to evolve and mature. In April 1989, Ian was joined by a full-time Assistant Countryside Management Officer, Jonathan Blowers. This post arose out of an earlier part-time assistant role fulfilled by Liz Davies, who started working with volunteer work parties on a regular basis, completing countryside management work.

With an increasing work load, it was clear further staff resources were needed and in December 1990 Liza Henderson was taken on as a self-employed part-time administrative assistant.

Around this time, a detailed review of the Project by the sponsoring bodies, resolved that the Project be made permanent. By the unanimous agreement of all concerned, on 1 April 1991 the Countryside Management Service came into being and looked forward to the future with the firm support of all it's sponsors.

Further changes of staff occurred during August 1991, when Jonathan Blowers left the Countryside Management Service to take up a post with English Nature as a Scientific Officer. Karl Dougan, took over the post, left vacant by Jonathan's departure in September 1991. He then left after two years to study for a degree, full time as a Landscape Architect.

Tony Riden was appointed in October 1993 as Assistant Countryside Management Officer, joining the Service from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust. Tony has developed the volunteer team, recruiting and retaining a team of 80 plus active participants. Tony also had previous experience as a science teacher, which has proved useful in developing the environmental education role of the Service. In December 1993 Christine Bennett joined the team as a self-employed part-time administrator, there by ensuring full cover during office hours.

Due to the additional management responsibilities for Trowbarrow Local Nature Reserve (LNR), a contract part-time Warden was appointed in January 1997. Jane Harvey worked for the CMS in this role until April 2003, overseeing Trowbarrow LNR and Warton Crag LNR on behalf the owners, Lancacster City Council. More recently this role has not been staffed, but arrangements have recently been completed to re-appoint a part-time warden, and Jane Harvey is again carrying out this role for the AONB Unit.

The Arnside/Silverdale AONB Unit

There has been a significant evolution which has changed the way the AONB will be managed. These changes follow on from the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. The Act has brought about significant increases to the national funding of AONBs, placing AONBs on a similar footing to the funding arrangements of National Parks. The Act also requires the production and regular review of management plans for all 41 AONB's in England and Wales. The Countryside Management Service has been replaced by the Arnside and Silverdale AONB Unit ( AONB Service ). This body will continue to implement measures to protect and enhance the area, carrying on the role of the CMS and developing further the community involvement in this work. With the changes brought about by the implementation of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the established staff of the CMS were transferred to the AONB Service.

In the past the administrative work of the office had been carried out by two part-time contractors. Due to the changes brought into effect by the CRoW Act, there was a need to secure the post of Administrator on the permanent staff of the AONB Service. Christine Bennett (one of the part-time self-employed admin people) applied for the post and started working full time for the AONB unit during June 2002. She subsequently left the Unit following a short spell working part-time again. Barbara Henneberry joined the staff initially working with Christine on a job share basis. When Christine resigned in January 2004, Barbara took over as our full-time administrative officer on 9th February 2004.

The post of AONB Officer was created to write and develop the management plan required under the CRoW legislation. Rowena Lord was appointed in June 2002 and organised the preliminary consultation workshops for the new management plan. Following a lot of hard work, Rowena left the AONB Unit to take over from Tim Ashberry as Property Manager for the National Trust in Arnside/Silverdale and South Lakeland. She is currently based at Bank House Farm in Silverdale. The management Plan was subsequently completed by consultants - Woolerton/Dodwell of Kendal. The Management Plan was formally adopted in April 2004 and work is now concentrated on implementing the Plan.

David Askew was appointed to the vacant AONB Officer post at the end of September 2004, following an open competition selection for the post. The role will now involve monitoring the effectiveness of the Partnership in implementing the Management Plan, advising others on their responsibilites, helping the AONB Manager with technical advice on management issues, developing AONB policy on issues such as Sustainable Tourism and undertaking the periodic review of the current management plan in the future.

The Arnside/Silverdale AONB Limestone Herityage Project
During 1998/99 the CMS, through its local authority partners, developed the "Limestone Heritage Project". The Project secured Heritage Lottery Funding of Ł506,000 and partnership match-funding for a five year Ł675,000 programme of work. David Askew left the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, where he was employed as a Project Ranger on the Howgills, to take up appointment as the Project Officer on 1st November 2001. As the CMS transfered its responsibilities to the AONB Service during 2002, management of the Limestone Heritage Project passed to the new body. In September 2004, David was promoted to the post of AONB Officer. Consequently the Limestone Heritage Project Officer post was advertised and Richard Bamforth of Lancaster was appointed in December 2004 as the Project Officer for the remaining two and a half years of the Project, which will run until 31st March 2007.

The current core staff consist of

AONB Manager - Ian Henderson
AONB Officer - Dave Askew
AONB Countryside Officer - Tony Riden
AONB Administrator - Barbara Henneberry
Limestone Heritage Project Officer - Richard Bamforth

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The Dower report and the Silverdale Conservation Area...

The Dower Report published in 1945 discussed the creation of and suggested locations of National Parks and other protected areas in the UK. It did not make specific mention of the distinctive landscape area around Silverdale and Arnside, on the Lancashire/Westmorland boundary bordering Morecambe Bay. Within two years, the report of the National Parks Committee (set up by Parliament to take forward the process of developing a list of areas to be designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Bill) first set out the desirability of designating the area that was to become the Arnside and Silverdale AONB.

The Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Arthur Hobhouse, identified the Silverdale Conservation Area in a list of 52 proposed conservation areas.
The "Hobhouse" report described these areas as being high quality landscapes, of scientific interest and recreational value deserving designation but not meeting the criteria to warrant designation as National Parks.

The first proposal for a Silverdale Conservation Area identified an area of 79 square miles, much more extensive than the area eventually designated. The area stretched northward from Carnforth almost as far as Kendal and included all the low pastoral and wooded Carboniferous limestone hills on the eastern side of the Kent Estuary. To the east the area extended across the lowland mosses and fields to the craggy limestone hills of Farleton Fell and Hutton Roof, as far as the A65 Kendal-Kirkby Lonsdale road. It was bordered to the northwest by the proposed Lake District National Park and to the northeast by the 311 square miles of the proposed Howgills Fells Conservation Area.

The National Parks Commission

The National Park Commission was created in 1949 with the enactment of the National Parks legislation in 1949 and was formed as a successor to the National Parks Committee. The Commissions first priority was to develop the National Park designation programme. By 1954 that programme was well advanced and the Commission was able to announce the start of a programme of designation for Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). The first AONB designation was made in 1956 (The Gower). It was not until July 1959 that the Commission considered proposals for a Silverdale AONB, together with the adjacent Howgill Fells Conservation Area. No decision was made at that time. Subsequent meetings in October 1959, November 1959, March 1960 and October 1960 further deferred any decisions.

After the meeting held in February 1961 a delegation from the Commision was sent to visit the Silverdale and Howgill areas. The visit took place in June 1961 and the delegation's report was considered at a Commission meeting on 28th June 1961. The result was a further deferment of any designation. The fate of Silverdale and the adjoining Howgill Fells had become linked to the designation of the North Pennines and the uncertainty that had arisen of designating this latter area as either a National Park or an AONB.

It wasn't until March 1964 that further progress was made when the Commission finally resolved to consider the Silverdale designation separately. A meeting in July 1965 reviewed the proposal. It was decided that there were more urgent priorities and the Commission again delayed making a decision about the proposal. However, the minutes of this meeting were important, as they marked the first mention of the "Arnside and Silverdale AONB". A further meeting in September of the same year further deferred the designation. A year and a half passed before the Commission revisited their AONB designation programme. Once again, they agreed to take action to designate the Silverdale area, again with the possibility of some form of link with the Howgill Fells

In October 1967 the Commission wrote to Westmorland and Lancashire County Councils, informing them of the decision to progress toward designation as an AONB, the Arnside and Silverdale area, plus "appropriate" parts of the "Hobhouse" Howgill Fells conservation area within the two counties. It is worth noting that in the intervening years the southern part of the Howgills Fells - within the West Riding of Yorkshire boundary - had already been included within the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The Commission requested that the two County Councils cooperate in the preparation of a draft preliminary map showing the areas they considered should form the designated area.

The County Councils suggested that only the south-western portion of the proposed AONB area should be designated, excluding any adjoining areas of the Howgill Fells Conservation Area. Progress was again rather slow, with the transition from the National Parks Commission to its successor, the Countryside Commission being a contributory factor. The County Councils sent a map to the Commission in February 1970, which was considered by the Countryside Commission on 7th April 1970. This meeting resolved to proceed with designation on the basis of the boundaries proposed by the two counties.

The Arnside Link Road

Concurrently with the process to designate the Arnside and Silverdale AONB, the Ministry of Transport (MOT) were developing a road scheme to link Barrow to the A6/M6. The County Councils had already accepted the line of road running through the proposed AONB from Yealand Redmayne to Arnside and on across Meathop Moss in the southern part of the Lake District National Park. The Countryside Commission were very concerned about the damage such a road would cause to the landscape of the area. In June 1970, following a campaign by the Arnside Link Road Objection Committee, officers of the Countryside Commission met with the Ministry of Transport and the two County Councils to discuss the landscape impact of the road scheme. Following this the Commission inspected the route proposed and reported on the disastrous landscape impact of the scheme on the proposed AONB. The Commission employed a consultant to prepare a report advising on a possible alternative to the link road scheme. The Public Inquiry held in November 1971, considered the Commission's route as well as that proposed by the MOT.

Designation Order

Following a period of consultation and further meetings of the Commission, the proposed designation was advertised in the London Gazette on 8th February 1972. Following some negotiations with objectors the Designation Order was signed on the 4th July 1972 and submitted to the Secretary of State on the 17th July for confirmation. Thirteen years had elapsed since the start of the designation process and twenty five years since the "Hobhouse" Committee first identified the area as suitable for designation

On 15th December 1972, the Secretary of State confirmed the Designation Order for the Arnside & Silverdale AONB, covering 29 square miles (75 square kilometres) of Westmorland and Lancashire. Happily, at the same time he also announced his decision to reject the MOT proposed Barrow/Arnside link road in favour of the alternative scheme to improve the existing A590 road put forward by the Countryside Commission.

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