GOVERNMENT funding for the Lake District National Park Authority is being increased by just under three per cent for the coming financial year.

Members of the authority's corporate and financial services committee heard that the annual funding from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs had been confirmed at £6,050,672 - an increase of £143,571 over this year's current financial settlement. The total DEFRA funding for all the English national parks is just under £36 million.

National park officer Paul Tiplady told members that funds from other sources would provide the authority with a total budget of £6,654,972.

Committee members were told that staff costs now represented just under 63 per cent of the authority's overall budget.