The many positive responses to a telephone survey conducted in the three National Parks of Wales have been welcomed by the Pembrokeshire Park, along with comments which have highlighted important areas in which the planning message needs to be improved.
At last week's meeting of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, members were given first sight of the findings of the Planning Perception Survey report undertaken by a Cardiff-based research and marketing company, in which 900 people were surveyed across the three Welsh National Parks.
Overall, the survey found that the majority of people consulted were satisfied with the planning service provided by the Pembrokeshire Park and the other authorities.
Summarising some of the key findings, Ifor Jones, head of conservation, said 86 per cent of those interviewed agreed that strict planning policies were needed to protect the special qualities of the National Park; 94 per cent believed that the Parks can strike a balance between protecting the environment and looking after the interests of local people on planning matters, and 62 per cent thought National Parks were doing a good job on planning.
Mr. Jones said that newspaper reports on the survey had highlighted responses specifically to the Bluestone development issue, yet of those interviewed in Pembrokeshire, only nine per cent referred directly to Bluestone - with both positive and negative responses.
And a finding that almost half of those interviewed were unaware of whether they lived in the National Park area or not could be explained by the sampling spreading into the wider area outside the Park boundaries.
Members also commented that unless individuals had been involved in the planning process or had direct contact with the Park, they were understandably not always aware of its actual boundaries. This issue is further complicated by the linear composition of the Park with cases where one side of a village road is in the Park and the other is not.
Development management committee chairman Richard Howells has welcomed the general findings on the planning service.
"I feel that, by and large, the vast majority see that the Park Authority has a difficult job and is doing it quite well. We now have something fairly positive to support our system and this provides us with a basis from which to go forward and get across the message of the Park to not only Park dwellers, but to the entire population of the county and further afield.
"It is accepted we have a difficult job to do, but it is nice to know that the majority of the people surveyed were appreciative. There is still a long way to go, but we as an authority are making a serious effort to bring the planning process closer to the people and be as transparent as we can possibly be. I am really optimistic that progress is being made." Members will discuss the report in further detail at a workshop to be held on September 21.