Lake District Blog

It seems to me that relations between the Lake District National Park Authority and local communities have never been worse than they are now. Daily one can hear nothing but contempt from local people about arbitrary NPA decisions which adversely affect their lives.
Following the 10mph ban on Windermere, which even people who never use the lake found outrageous, we now have petty-minded officials telling local organizations how they may or may not advertise traditional non-profit events. All local country shows, sports events, flower shows, galas and theatrical productions will now have to apply for permission to use temporary banner advertising, no doubt paying a hefty fee to the planners and no doubt opposed by that narrow-minded bunch of interfering busybodies called the Friends of the Lake District who cannot bear anything which affects the way they think things should look.
As an example of how ludicrous the NPA’s latest edict is, take the huge outdoor marketing event which is to take place at Rydal in June. This is to be run by a major international publisher, Emap, which has no interest in this area other than using it as a marketing tool, its aim being to attract 30,000 plus people to a 3 day event at Rydal Park, to promote the sale of all things ‘outdoors’. This will cause major traffic problems as it is located on the A591, it will interfere with other local events and will generally be a nuisance we can do without. Yet the NPA is powerless to stop it even though it flies in the face of their policy of discouraging anything which increases traffic.
Where the NPA can flex its bullying muscles though is against small harmless traditional local organizations which have been holding their annual shows and events since before the NPA was invented, taking advantage where they can of the tourist influx. These remarkable events are a showplace for a rich variety of local talent and skill. They are run by volunteers on a shoestring and they frequently face financial crises, so they need all the publicity they can get. They do not need any more problems and expense than they already have in trying to survive.
A National Park Authority which cared about all aspects of life within its domain would be actively encouraging and promoting these local events, which seldom if ever seek public funding and which for many visitors give an interesting insight into local life, forming a welcome antidote to endless vistas of empty lakes and mountains. There is more to life and the Lake District than views and landscape.
For more see Ambleside Online community website

Local people who have hoped that the NPA would show concern over issues affecting local communities have been disappointed over several issues recently. It seems clear that the NPA have abandoned any pretence that they have a duty to 'foster the interests' of local people and in a way that is fine - we now know where we stand.
The matter of the Ambleside Methodist Hall being referred by the NPA for listed building status, thereby jeopardising its use for conversion to affordable homes and by extension the financing of the new parish hall, is a recent case in point. Protests from local councillors no doubt had some effect in the decision by English Heritage that the building should not be listed. The NPA has avoided making its own position clear.
More recently attempts by Ambleside traders to have ice-cream barrow salesmen banned from the Market Cross area have been met with a shrug of the shoulders from the NPA who don't think this a planning issue. Some people may think it is. But the NPA decides and they have ruled. Tough luck on the rate-paying permanent shopkeepers selling ice cream. Pie and hot-dog stalls next?
The NPA are about to sign up to an agreement with the MOD over low flying by military aircraft. This is to evade once and for all the pressure being put on them over the issue. Most people would agree that there is nothing more inimical to the quiet enjoyment of the National Park than these aircraft. The noise of powerboats, scarcely audible to anyone not on the lake or shore, was sufficient to have that activity controversially banned by the NPA from Windermere. But regular screaming jets at 250 ft which seriously affect the enjoyment of thousands, that's apparently going to be nodded through as OK, making a travesty of the 'quiet enjoyment must prevail' attitude of the NPA on every other matter.
It seems that the NPA are now solely concerned with the natural environment. Woodland, rare plants, threatened species, these all matter. Local people don't. In a blinkered view of human needs, including the necessity to make a living in the landscape, pursue commercial interests and the jobs which depend on them, the NPA is concerned only with views, the visual aspect, the preservation of a landscape long despoiled from its natural state by thousands of pre-NPA years of human activity. In pursuing this arbitrary notion, all new local buildings must look like 200 year old barns.
It really is time that the statutory duties of all National Park Authorities were reviewed, this time with the realisation that no landscape can be preserved in aspic, and that local communities are also under threat of disintegration, and that they cannot be expected forever to accept that their interests come second to those of visitors, badgers, toads and scenery.
I wonder what would happen if a local resident were to challenge in the European Court of Human Rights a ruling by the NPA that he must roof his new property in local slate at four times the price of alternative materials, with no help available towards the difference in cost? Only the Brits would tolerate this blatant discrimination . . .