A NATIONAL park authority is making a bid for a 20 per cent-plus rise in its funding from the Government for the next financial year

The funding is needed to carry out a wide range of schemes, including the development of local skills to aid the economy of the North York Moors National Park, conservation work on historic buildings, improving public transport, marketing tourism and forward planning.

At a meeting of the authority, Councillor Herbert Tindall, the vice-chairman, said: "There is a lot of work to be done in the coming year which couldn't be carried out last year because of foot-and-mouth disease."

A priority list of future plans, agreed by the authority, totals £875,000 and covers recreation management of the park's ten million visitors a year.

The authority has also agreed to increased its Farm and Rural Community Scheme payments - made to farmers for land management work - from £3,573 to £4,787.

Hawson Simpson, a parish councils representative on the authority, said there was a worrying trend that when a moorland farm became available its land was divided among other farmers.

County councillor Mike Knaggs said he wanted to see funding used to help restock sheep flocks which were vital to the long-term sustainability of the moorland heather.

He was told that Yorkshire Forward, the Government's regional development agency, could make money available through its rural recovery fund.