Heritage crime is defined as ‘any offence which harms the value of England’s heritage assets and their settings to this and future generations’ . It comes under the wider heading of rural crime which covers wildlife crime, Rights of Way and heritage crime.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park contains many things that are defined as heritage assets including:
- Listed buildings
- Conservation areas
- Scheduled monuments
- Registered Parks and Gardens
- Protected military remains of aircraft and vessels of historic interest
- Undesignated but acknowledged heritage buildings and sites.
A heritage crime has been committed when someone does something unauthorised to an asset. Examples include not following conditions in a planning consent, stripping lead off a Listed church roof, or robbing stones from a scheduled barrow to add to a walkers’ cairn.
A recent survey for the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN) showed that there is large-scale non-reporting of crime in the countryside so we are keen to be told of crimes that have been committed and even better, to encourage members of the pubic to call the police on 101 and get the incident logged.
There is some very useful help and advice available before you do this in the following links:
If it is not designated you may want to contact us for information about the site on herinfo@yorkshiredales.org.uk or call us on 01969 652362 or 01969 652360.