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All posts Natural England’s Proposals for a Yorkshire Wolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) – Response from The Yorkshire Wolds Heritage Trust
Natural England has recently given notice that it proposes to make an Order designating approximately 463 square kilometres of land in the East Riding and in North Yorkshire as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Yorkshire Wolds.
Maps of the proposed area can be inspected at:
- Natural England York office, Foss House, Kings Pool, 1-2 Peasholme Green, York, YO1 7PX
- East Riding Council Customer Service Centre, Champney Treasure House, Champney Road, Beverley, HU17 8HE
- North Yorkshire Council office, Ryedale House, Old Malton Road, Malton, North Yorkshire, YO17 7HH
- And at the libraries in Filey, Flamborough, Malton and Market Weighton.
They are also available to download at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/yorkshire-wolds-area-of-outstanding-natural-beauty-proposed-designation
The Trust’s Response: ‘Please Reconsider the Boundaries’
The Trust has been consulted and contributed many times on issues regarding planning, development, landscape protection and enhancement and local heritage since it was set up in 1991 and members appreciate being included in a group of statutory consultees in order to offer experienced, professional and (hopefully unbiased and apolitical) advice when required.
We are excited to hear that the AONB designation will at last happen after the failure of three (?) previous propositions.
We acknowledge the well-presented and informative material produced by Natural England and the opportunities to attend a good spread of information venues across the area. The staff present were engaging, responsive and made notes of our suggestions. Some of our members also submitted written responses to the original proposals.
Despite that, we find only very minor alterations to Natural England’s original proposals which did not include large swathes of wonderful Wold scenery and, sadly, suggests an unwillingness to consider seriously the views of local stakeholders.
We are aware of differing attitudes to designation, even amongst our members, but there is broad agreement that if this is to go ahead as set out in the latest communication we are very disappointed that such a geologically and geographically well-defined and historically distinct area should be broken up without adequate explanation for:
i) The omission of most of the Great Wold Valley of the Gypsey Race which includes such nationally important features as the Rudston Monolith and the Murano glass wall mosaic at Kirby Grindalythe
ii) The omission of the popular area of scarps, deep valleys, woodland and Wold tops from Market Weighton to Welton which is probably the part most easily accessible by public transport, has many well signposted footpaths, is closest to a large urban area, and already regularly visited.
iii) The small unconnected areas around Flamborough Head that will become degraded by overdevelopment as landlocked tourist honeypots.
iii) Non-inclusion of areas with scenic value because of detractors deemed unacceptable by Natural England eg caravan sites, wind turbines, fields of solar panels, built up areas, etc.. Mitigation of such sites, eg tree planting or quarantining, instead of ruling out the whole area around them does not appear to have been considered.
Neither are we very happy about a suggestion that Natural England establish parts of the Wolds for the new AONB and then review later, when it is so evidently deficient. Is it not worthwhile to reconsider now the integrity of the whole Yorkshire Wolds as one easily identifiable landscape feature before the process goes any further?
Editorial note: The views expressed in this article are those of the Chairman in consultation with other members of the Trust. Both the Trust and Natural England welcome all contributions to the debate, whether supporting or objecting. Please let us know how you feel about the proposed AONB (Area of Outstanding NaturalBeauty/National Landscape Area) consultation before 6th March 2026 at:
