The natural environment is commodified as machines are used to collect a new countryside tax from visitors to the Peak District National Park.
In car parking spots across the Peak District previous voluntary car parking donations are being turned into a mandatory taxation points with punishments for those who don't pay.
One justification is that the scheme is there to help the environment by reducing car use in the park and encouraging people to use public transport instead. This claim seems exceedingly unlikely. For one thing many places where the new tax is implemented are simply not accessible by public transport at all. The very popular climbing area at Stanage is one such example. Even where there is public transport it is usually so infrequent, costly and slow that it will only discourage car use if the pay and display prices are unusually high. A recent report said that 90% of visitors paid the old voluntary fee anyway. There appears to be no reduction in the number of cars visiting the park since the voluntary payment was introduced around 10 years ago. If anything the number of vehicles is increasing.
In the past Peak District visitors have taken direct action by damaging the pay and display machines within the park. Perhaps this was done before it was realised the payment scheme was only voluntary. To prevent the attacks the machines were protected by secondary, smaller machines lurking hidden in nearby bushes or dry stone walls. These tiny video cameras recorded what happened including the visitors number plate. The police then used this evidence to prosecute activists at a later date.
Whether making the payment compulsory will lead to a resurgence in direct action is yet to be seen. But anyone contemplating action should take account of the hidden cameras that, unless stopped, will probably be recording their every move.
One justification is that the scheme is there to help the environment by reducing car use in the park and encouraging people to use public transport instead. This claim seems exceedingly unlikely. For one thing many places where the new tax is implemented are simply not accessible by public transport at all. The very popular climbing area at Stanage is one such example. Even where there is public transport it is usually so infrequent, costly and slow that it will only discourage car use if the pay and display prices are unusually high. A recent report said that 90% of visitors paid the old voluntary fee anyway. There appears to be no reduction in the number of cars visiting the park since the voluntary payment was introduced around 10 years ago. If anything the number of vehicles is increasing.
In the past Peak District visitors have taken direct action by damaging the pay and display machines within the park. Perhaps this was done before it was realised the payment scheme was only voluntary. To prevent the attacks the machines were protected by secondary, smaller machines lurking hidden in nearby bushes or dry stone walls. These tiny video cameras recorded what happened including the visitors number plate. The police then used this evidence to prosecute activists at a later date.
Whether making the payment compulsory will lead to a resurgence in direct action is yet to be seen. But anyone contemplating action should take account of the hidden cameras that, unless stopped, will probably be recording their every move.
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