Peak District tourists could face entry fee
Phil Mulligan, the chief executive of the Peak District National Park Authority, said it 'wouldn't need any government funding' if it could charge 10p per visitor.
The park, which has around 13 million visitors per year, has cut 10 per cent of its staff in recent months because of what Mr Mulligan called 'declining funding'.
He added that there had been a 50 per cent real terms funding cut over the last decade, while the park had grappled with problems such as wildfires and dangerous parking.
'Ever-declining' government funds
Mr Mulligan told the BBC: 'We have the pressure of visitors, we have the pressure of delivering for the nation in terms of the ecological crisis, the climate crisis.
'I'm trying to do that with an ever-declining set of government funds, at a time when what's being asked of the national park is more and more.
'I think that [charging tourists fees] is a big discussion that government is going to need to have. But what would be the mechanism for that? I haven't got the powers.'
The authority's financial troubles have been blamed on a fixed government grant that has not accounted for inflation or other costs such as the rise in the minimum wage.
Mr Mulligan added: 'If [the Government] are going to keep cutting our funding, then there is going to need to be a different way of funding national parks.'
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