A NATIONAL Park for Dorset and East Devon could bring central government funding of £10million to the area as well as helping to promote promote communities and offer opportunities, benefits and advantages to the economy and businesses, it has been claimed.

Dorset & East Devon National Park Team submitted their proposal to Natural England in 2013 and has been developing proposals for the designation.

The group has commissioned an independent report entitled "Economic Opportunities, Benefits and Wider Impacts of a Dorset and East Devon National Park".

It was prepared by sustainability consultant David Dixon and Robert Deane from rural environment consultants Rural Focus.

The group want the park to cover the entire Isle of Purbeck and the Jurassic Coast from Exmouth to Poole Harbour, including the Dorset and East Devon Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

In a foreword to the report, Sandra Brown from the Dorset and East Devon team said that the key messages the group take away from the report are that the National Park would offer opportunities, benefits and advantages to the economy in the National Park and throughout Dorset and East Devon and that it would promote thriving local communities, including affordable house, key services employment and skills.

The group also said that it shows that it would bring additional and more certain resources to the area, including central government funding which might amount to £10 million per year, including other source of incomes.

Mrs Brown also said that the park would conserve and enhance the area's environment, which is its greatest economic asset.

In the foreword to the report, she said: "Building a strong and sustainable economy and thriving communities goes hand-in-hand with safeguarding our world-class environment, landscape, geology and biodiversity. These aims are inter-dependant.

"The environment, landscape, geology and biodiversity of the Dorset and East Devon National Park area are by any measure world class, and not only for the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast. It is no wonder that the area was recommended for National Park status in the Dower Report of 1945 and that Natural England has given our 2013 proposal a positive initial assessment."

The report also discusses the challenges that face rural economies, including providing affordable housing and dealing with the pressures and demands of visitors but said that National Park designation far from adding to the issues will bring "resources and capacities to take positive action to enhance the economic resilience of designated areas."

Another report earlier this year said that the environment was worth £1.5 billion to the Dorset economy each year and called for it to be protected.

The Dorset and East Devon National Park team also said that local government re-organisation provides an opportunity for Dorset councils to include a National Park as part of a devolution proposal to government in 2017.

The group is now looking forward to discussing the "significant" opportunities which a National Park would offer with interested parties.