New committee to monitor beauty spot (From Tewkesbury Admag)

New committee to monitor beauty spot

A PIONEERING new authority is being proposed to run the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and enhance the image of the area.

If agreed, the Cotswold Conservation Board will take control of running the AONB, the largest of the 41 in England and Wales, from April this year.

The new board, which will work with the 17 local authorities that currently come within the Cotswold AONB, will give the area special status.

"A board would give the Cotswolds a more prestigious and influential voice, both for the AONB as a whole and for the communities who are involved in its care and management," said a statement from the AONB Partnership.

It says the board would put the Cotswolds on a par with more widely recognised fine landscapes such as Dartmoor and Exmoor, Snowdonia and the Lake District.

Cotswold District Council environment and economy committee members agreed to recommend to the council that the new board should be set up.

Currently the district council acts as "host" for the partnership, employing its staff, though it is intended these staff will eventually be employed directly by the new board.

The cost of setting up the board will be met by government through the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Countryside Agency.

The Countryside Agency will also pay 80 per cent of the board's operating costs, with the remaining amount being met by the local authorities involved in the AONB.