A TIGHTENING up of ‘flawed’ National Park development rules is being demanded as new figures reveal an increasing amount of building work is being carried out without planning permission.

Eighty-five per cent of retrospective planning applications in the Lake District National Park were passed in 2010.

And in the Yorkshire Dales that was even higher at 90 per cent.

Outraged parish councillors and conservationists have branded the statistics ‘worryingly unhealthy’ and are demanding national park planning rules be enforced.

“I am shocked at these figures,” said Richard Pearse, of Friends of the Lake District National Park. “It sends out entirely the wrong message to people, essentially ‘build what you want because you will get away with it’.”

“From our point of view it is a concern because you can only really conserve an area if you can control development from the very beginning.”

Troutbeck parish councillors requested the statistics after a rise in retrospective planning applications coming from the village.

Chairman of the park’s development control committee Judith Cooke said the authority deals with around 270 applications a year. She said that in 2010, 14 out of 17 retrospective applications were passed by the authority. So far in 2011 there have been 20 requests and 40 per cent have been passed.

In the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 26 of 29 applications for retrospective planning were passed in 2010. In 2011 nine out of 10 have been given the go-ahead.

Troutbeck parish councillor Pip Simpson said the system was flawed: “Planning boards should be tougher and impose big fines on anybody that does retrospective planning because what they are doing is illegal.

“People are flouting the laws and they are getting away with it. Planners don’t seem to be doing anything about it.”

Chair of the Lakes Parish Council Fiona Sparrow has now demanded a meeting with Lake District planning officers to discuss the situation which she believes is ‘getting out of hand’.

She said: “Sometimes the application might just be a window or a septic tank – something that we would have given approval to anyway, but it is the principle.”

Among the 17 retrospective applications passed by LDNPA in 2010 were a new build flat in Windermere, a change of use from a dwelling to a guest house in Underbarrow and a single storey and balcony extension to a house, in Windermere.

Planning chair Judith Cooke said: “We value people’s views on planning matters and welcome feedback on the services that we provide. It is a fact that we do not have a statutory duty to monitor the implementation of planning permissions. It is the responsibility of those carrying out the development to comply with the permission.”

Ms Cooke said she would arrange for the park’s head of Development Management Services and area ranger to meet with concerned councillors to ask them what they would like to be done differently.

Peter Stockton, head of sustainable development for the Yorkshire Dales National Park, said: “The number of retrospective planning applications we receive doesn’t concern us unduly at the moment. Sometimes people simply don’t know they need permission while others may try to avoid it –perhaps to save money during the economic downturn.

"However, most of what comes through retrospective planning is permissible but if it isn’t we will take a very strong line on it.”

Figures released by the North Yorkshire Moors National Park showed that their planning board passed 87 per cent of retrospective planning requests in 2010.

In the same year Northumberland National Park received just two applications and passed one.