THE Lake District is ‘full’ of tourists and attracting more will only worsen the climate emergency, councillors have warned.

Fears about tourism staff shortages post-Brexit and the struggling transport network were raised at a South Lakeland District Council meeting.

It followed a motion by Conservative councillor James Airey who called on the Lib Dem-run chamber to back the Government’s tourism sector deal.

Cllr Airey, for the Furness Peninsula, urged SLDC to support a ‘successful’ bid for Cumbria to become a new zone when applications open in December.

The motion received unanimous cross-party support during a vote but not before Liberal Democrats raised the ‘elephant in the room called Brexit’.

Cllr Chris Hogg said: “The number of staff employed by the hospitality industry from Europe between 2016-2018 has gone down by 17 per cent. In our area, 50 per cent of the hospitality trade is made up of EU nationals, so it’s a huge concern.”

Cllr Andrew Jarvis said Windermere’s roads were in a ‘dire’ state and at peak times were ‘jammed solid’. The rail service was ‘inadequate’ and local councils had suffered cuts to public transport schemes, he said.

“Many residents feel that the Lake District is already full,” said Cllr Jarvis.

Cllr Matt Severn said current EU workers would be classed as ‘non-UK’ after Brexit. He said the Government was consulting on restricting non-UK workers to a £30,000 salary cap, which was unlikely in local tourism.

Cllr Dyan Jones, the Liberal Democrat cabinet member for the environment, said an action zone ‘sounded fantastic’.

“But with my environment, climate emergency, bio-diversity and localism portfolio, my first response is that growth needs sustainability,” he said.

“We passed a climate emergency declaration unanimously and now we’re talking about this. We need to stick to what we declared.”

Cllr Tom Harvey, leader of the opposition Conservatives, said some of the remarks had ‘dragged down’ something ‘positive and encouraging’ for South Lakeland.

Cllr Airey agreed that a £30,000 wage cap was ‘utterly ridiculous’ and said the aim of an action zone would be to spread tourism further afield.

“Isn’t it time with all the doom and gloom that we are actually positive about our area,” he said.

Ulverston Labour councillor Mark  Wilson said the zone presented the town with a ‘massive opportunity’ to sensibly develop tourism.

“The A590 might even get some infrastructure investment,” he said.