BANNING 4x4s and scrambler bikes from using ‘green lanes’ in the Lake District is only likely to generate a head of steam in the years to come.

None of us needs reminding that the climate change debate, and the need to reduce carbon emissions, is front and centre of the national conversation

Visitors and environmental organisations are a very powerful lobby but often have a very fixed idea of what the Lake District represents.

For many, it’s a place to find peace and tranquility, away from the noise and fumes of modern-day life.

But that is also a very narrow way of regarding the area which has to have a working economy to thrive.

What about Cumbria’s place as a Capital of Adventure? What about the need for the tourism sector to offer a wide range of experiences to cater for different people’s tastes?

While you can have sympathy for those who have to live with this activity day in, day out, try telling it to those who live on busy roads passed by thousands of vehicles every day.

Surely the Lake District is big enough for all of our different interests to find their own corner of enjoyment?

And if the Lake District isn’t the appropriate place for an adventure in a 4x4, where is?

Once we start banning 4x4s, what comes next? Sightseers in cars? Campervans and motorcyclists?