ABSTRACT
National parks are areas in England and Wales (and recently Scotland) which have been designated as such under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 (NPACA), s 6(1), (2) and (3), because of their inherent natural beauty. The official title ‘national park’ is a misnomer. They are not ‘national’ in the sense that they belong to the State; the land is owned and operated by individual landowners unlike in other countries; and they are not ‘parks’ as they are working environments where public access may be restricted.
