New Minister to meet National Parks heads in Norwich
Association of National Parks Authorities conference
September 14th – 16th.
The new Minister for Rural Affairs, Jim Knight, will meet the heads of the UK’s National Parks for the first time in Norwich on Wednesday September 14th and will make his first visit to the Broads.
Jim Knight, who succeeds Alun Michael as the Minister responsible for National Parks and inland waterways will attend the first evening of the Association of National Parks Authorities annual conference which is being hosted by the Broads Authority from September 14th to 16th.
He will use the reception at The Forum at 6.30 pm to give his first address to members and staff gathered from the UK’s 14 National Parks. The reception will also be attended by Home Secretary Charles Clarke, MP for Norwich South, and the Lord Mayor of Norwich, Michael Banham who will welcome the 145 delegates to Norwich and the Broads.
The reception will be followed by a buffet meal at which Martin Kirby, writer and former deputy editor of the Eastern Daily Press, will be speaking. Martin, who has travelled from Spain specially for the event, swapped a successful career and his picturesque cottage in North Norfolk for a sustainable lifestyle on a 10 acre farm in the Catalonian mountains in north-east Spain.
On Thursday morning 9.30 – 10.30 am Jim Knight will take a trip on the Broads Authority’s solar powered boat ‘Ra’ on Barton Broad to learn about the Authority’s work restoring the broad and improving water quality and its efforts, as an award-winning Beacon Council, to improve sustainable tourism. He will then explore the Barton Boardwalk, which gives new public access to the broad.
The conference, which is based at Norwich Playhouse, features high profile speakers on climate change and sustainable tourism.
On Thursday the delegates will experience the Broads and coastline to see at first hand the Authority’s work in sustainable tourism and the effects of climate change on five specially arranged trips. They will be able to choose between wherry sailing, canoeing, a trip on the solar boat ‘Ra’ and a visit to How Hill, meeting Eric Edwards, the Broads Authority’s marshman, climbing Horsey Windpump and exploring Winterton Dunes Nature Reserve, and a river boat trip from Norwich to Whitlingham Country Park combined with walking part of the new Wherryman’s Way.
Bob Flowerdew, Britain’s leading organic gardener, and a broadcaster and environmentalist, will speak after dinner at Delia Smith’s restaurant at Norwich City Football Club that evening.
On Friday morning David Coleman, Head of the Countryside Division at Defra, will explain how National Park issues relate to Government.
Broadcaster and colomnist Libby Purves will then lead debates on the current issues facing National Parks today.
