Being a Member of a national park authority is extremely interesting, rewarding and worthwhile, but it also carries much responsibility. Members work together to set policy and budgets, take the most important decisions, and monitor performance across all of the national park authority's activities. As such, their actions have a direct impact on the future of the national park.
At the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority, there are various policies, codes and requirements in place. These ensure Authority Members conduct themselves in a way consistent with the core values of the National Park Authority and in the best interests of the Yorkshire Dales National Park.
Individual responsibilities
All Members have written 'job descriptions'. They are expected to comply with a Code of Conduct. This sets out the behaviour expected of them when acting as Members of the National Park Authority. A separate Code of Conduct for Development Control sets out what is expected when Members undertake their responsibilities in relation to planning applications.
Members are also expected to comply with the National Park Authority's Financial Regulations and follow the Scheme of Members' Allowances setting out available allowances and expenses. More information on these and details of the allowances and expenses that have been paid to Members since 2006 are on the Finance pages.
In order to maintain transparency and avoid conflicts of interest, all Authority Members must declare their personal interests in a register. Those for which registration is required are set out in law and in our Code of Conduct. You can download registers of interest from each Member's page, accessed through the Meet the Members page.
Conduct in meetings
All meetings of the National Park Authority and its committees are regulated by the Authority's Standing Orders. These set out details including how the chairs and deputy chairs of committees are selected and what their duties are, how meetings should be run and how Members should conduct themselves in those meetings.
Maintaining high standards
The Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority has a Standards Committee. This is responsible for promoting and maintaining high standards of conduct by Members. The Committee's key roles include:
- advising on ethical issues,
- considering any complaints that Members may have acted improperly,
- being involved in creating and maintaining the codes of conduct for Members,
- monitoring how effective the codes of conduct for Members are,
- advising on training needs for Members about conduct and other governance issues.
When Members get it wrong
If you believe that one of the Members of the Authority has behaved in a way that is contrary to the Code of Conduct, you can make a complaint.
Full details of how to make a complaint and what will happen next are available in our explanatory leaflet, Complaints about Authority Members, or on the Compliments and complaints page.
