5 minutes with... inspirational local farmer Lydia Slack

5 minutes with...

A decade of travel – and work in some of the world’s most challenging locations – has given Peak District National Park Authority member Lydia Slack a new appreciation of the place she has always called home.

Igrew up on a Peak District dairy and

sheep farm but, by the age of 18, decided I wanted to get away from the

farm to experience another side of life. I spent a year with the charity Project Trust in the Kingdom of Eswatini, southern Africa, which really shaped my outlook and helped me to become more independent.

After completing my undergraduate degree in Agri-Business, I thought I wanted to work at the United Nations.

I was selected for an internship in the UN Division for Sustainable Development at the UN HQ in New York. It was a good experience to have at that time in my career, as I learned that actually I didn’t want to work in such a large organisation, where you often have quite a lot of distance between the work you do and the beneficiaries on the ground.

Since then, I have worked in smaller organisations where you can see the direct benefit of the work, which I find

rewarding. I’m currently the UK manager of Busoga Trust, a water, sanitation and hygiene charity, which constructs and rehabilitates boreholes and wells in Uganda. Clean water, good hygiene and sanitation is something we take so much for granted – and we often only think about it when something goes wrong.

I moved back to the Peak District in 2019 after about 10 years away to be

closer to my family and the farm. I had a completely new appreciation for the place and the people and saw an opportunity to bring my background and experience in the environmental and agricultural sectors to the Peak District National Park Authority, particularly in the context of climate change.

I feel that the communities who live here, work here and farm here are the backbone of the National Park and key to

any decisions we make. It is so important that they are valued, supported and considered in all that we do.

Lydia relishes her role, working with others to protect the Peak District National Park.

I really enjoy meeting people and hearing different thoughts and perspectives. One of the most enjoyable parts of my role is working together to reach a shared goal.

It seems we live in such a polarised world and rarely have the opportunity to listen and understand why people think differently to us. I’ve found the Authority to be a place to have open and honest discussions, where people bring different perspectives based on their own lived experience. Working with people who share a love of the National Park and give their time to protecting it is a real privilege.

My favourite place in the Peak District is

the Goyt Valley. It’s close to where I grew up, has a dramatic and diverse landscape and I always discover something new (there’s also often an ice cream van in one of the car parks!)

The least exciting part of my role is all the

reading. There’s a lot of paperwork to get through before meetings!

People might also be surprised to learn

that meetings can go on all day! One online planning committee meeting lasted from 10am until 6.15pm.

My advice for getting the most out of the Peak District National Park is that

you can never be too prepared. I’m a bit of a worrier, so if it’s overcast and I haven’t packed a waterproof jacket, I’ll spend the whole walk or activity worrying about it raining...

Bakewell tart or Bakewell pudding? It would have to be my mum’s Bakewell tart. But I do love Bakewell pudding too.

The Peak District National Park remains there for us all – and we need it now more than ever.

National Parks are vital for a green and healthy future Chair’s blog – Andrew McCloy

During the essential if minds and spirits are to be further than that. As we look ahead to height of refreshed and bodies exercised.” the next seventy years, our ambition the London Seventy years on and the crisis is now in the Peak District is to respond to the Blitz in a global pandemic, but society is once biggest challenges of all – from our bold 1941 a again turning to our finest landscapes, agenda to tackle climate change with the tall, bespectacled Andrew McCloy the outdoors and the natural world for restoration of eroded peat moors and Yorkshireman called hope and inspiration. Then as now, the pioneering a new and more sustainable John Dower shut himself Peak District plays a vital role for both approach to visitor travel, through away in the Ministry of Works to develop the communities that live and work here to our determination to encourage an idea that offered hope, renewal and and also the large urban audience on our more environmentally sensitive land freedom at a time of national crisis. management in order to help nature

It culminated, within the decade, in recover. what Government Minister Lewis Silkin National Parks have a continuing and described as “the most exciting Act of central role to play in helping society the post-war Parliament” and which forge a greener and healthier future. has gone on to shape public access and Over the last 12 months or so the countryside protection to this day. landscape has changed for so many of us

The National Parks Act of 1949 might doorstep (a third of the city of Sheffield in so many different ways, but thankfully not have offered a war-weary nation the is actually within the National Park the Peak District National Park remains bricks and mortar of new classrooms boundary). there for us all – and we need it now more or hospitals, but in creating National The physical and mental health- than ever. Parks – of which the Peak District was the giving benefits of National Parks that first – he instead promised something Dower envisaged are increasingly equally vital, explaining: “National parks well recognised, but they must also and access to open and wild places are be available to everyone; and it goes

National Parks have a continuing and central role to play

Follow our chair Andrew on Twitter

@PeakChair