In September 2019 The Glover Report into the future of Britain’s protected landscapes criticised national parks for not making enough people welcome.

Around Christmas time the Chief Executive of the Lake District National Park Authority told Sky News that 'the national park needs to be sold to everybody in Britain, all society, and it's important that it doesn't just become exclusive to one single use group'. Research shows visitors to the Lake District, are too heavily weighted towards older, able-bodied white people.

Yet just this week The Friends of the Lake District launched its campaign against the National Park Authority; as it seeks to have the ‘National Park looked after, protected from damaging developments and encouraging those that conserve and enhance its natural beauty and cultural heritage’.

By whose judgement? By the judgement of the trustees of the Friends of the Lake District I guess, who are largely middle-aged and older professionals, and exclusively white, and middle class. Don't they speak for themselves?

Geoff Wilson, Name and address supplied