There is no doubt that car use is rocketing and the authorities are no nearer to identifying solutions to the problems this creates.

The Belsfield Hotel in Bowness is a case in point. Motorists have been taking advantage of its 80-spaces to use as a free car park.

To halt this, the hotel asked the Lake District National Park Authority for permission to install cameras and signs. After all, you cannot expect paying guests to circle Bowness looking for a parking spot, and then have to cart their luggage long distances. But because the hotel – with its commanding view of Windermere - is in the heavily protected national park and a fiercely guarded conservation area, the cameras have been allowed but not the signs!

The other problem is the lack of land for more car parking in the Lakes. The chances are any such proposal would be fiercely opposed by the environmental lobby. This is a clear cut example of planning law, environmental law and traffic regulations all coming to a head in a confusing pile-up.

In recent years, councils have responded to the growing volume of traffic by laying down double yellow lines to push motorists off the streets and into pay and displays.

The volume of vehicles now outnumbers the parking spaces available, particularly in resorts like Bowness.

It is difficult to see a solution when our public transport system, even in a tourist hot spot like the Lakes, is so disconnected to the needs of the modern traveller.