The Yorkshire Dales near Bainbridge. Picture: Richard Doughty Photography. A REVIEW into the impact of pandemic on a national park has heard fresh calls for action over surging numbers of second homes and holiday cottages as people increasingly look to move to the country. A Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority meeting heard while some of Covid-19’s social and economic consequences on the 2,179sq km area remained unclear, there was increasingly clear evidence that the rising numbers of people were buying properties as an investment rather than as somewhere to live and work. Members were told while 3,100 of the national park’s 12,000 properties were now holiday lets and second homes, and the number was rising, the pandemic had accelerated a trend for rural relocations among wealthy and retired people.