Thanks everyone who took the time after my last column here to complete my survey on the idea of introducing a tourist tax in the area.

If you haven’t had the chance yet you still can, just search “Tim Farron Tourist Tax Survey” on the internet and follow the links. There are only four questions so it shouldn’t take you long.

So far I have had about 700 responses which is enough to give me a pretty good understanding for how people feel about the idea. About two thirds of those who completed the survey seemed to think it was a good idea and the general impression I get from chatting to people on the street is that this is pretty accurate.

Of course that means about a third did not support it. They were worried that it would put people off visiting the area. Particularly if it was a tax on people staying overnight as it is in many countries in Europe.

But what was really interesting and I suppose not that surprising given the nature of people around here was that there were also lots of suggestions for alternative ways to raise some money from the visitors to the area. A bed tax is certainly not the only option.

However, the thing that came through clearest from the survey was that people really wanted to find some more money to invest in our local infrastructure. Almost everyone felt that our roads and other transport services could benefit from a lot more money. Something I cannot disagree with.

As if to prove that point, if any of you were travelling through Windermere the other day and saw 60 rather miserable looking eight and nine-year-olds trudging through the town dressed as World War Two clothes and wondered why, let me explain.

Every year as part of teaching the children about our history the primary school re-enact an evacuation by taking the children on a train to Staveley. They then spend the day there learning about World War Two. The school rings up in advance to warn the train line that this is happening and in the past extra carriages have even been put on to fit everyone on.

I am sure you can guess where this is going. This year they turned up for the 9.34 train only to find that it had been cancelled. Not a word of warning from Northern much less an apology. A fine man from Stagecoach tried to sort things out and get a bus laid on but by the time this had been sorted it was felt that the poor children had been standing around for too long. So they all went back to school. I’m afraid this is yet another example of the lack of interest that Northern has in providing us with anything like an acceptable service in our part of the world.

Maybe if we had some more money from visitors we could afford to run our own reliable local service like we did during the summer.