Lake District bids to encourage greater diversity among visitors: ‘We need to sell the national park to everybody in Britain’

‘It’s important that it doesn’t just become exclusive to one single use group,’ says chief executive Richard Leafe

Derwentwater, near Keswick, in the Lake District (iStock)

The head of the Lake District says it must strive to become more inclusive so as to attract a greater diversity of visitors.

In September, a report commissioned by the government investigating the future of Britain’s protected landscapes criticised national parks for not making strong enough efforts to make all visitors feel welcome.

Richard Leafe, chief executive of the Lake District National Park Authority in Cumbria, outlined how the park must change in order to prevent the exclusion of large sectors of society.

He explained that making the relevant changes will ensure that the park continues to receive public funding.

“We need to be able to sell the national park to everybody in Britain, all of society, and it’s important that it doesn’t just become exclusive to one single-use group,” Mr Leafe told Sky News.

“The moment we get into that position I think national parks start to lose their relevance and therefore the very reason for calling it a national park and spending public money.”

Mr Leafe added that the Lake District should be seen as a site that is appealing to visitors from all backgrounds.

“We are deficient in terms of young people, we are deficient in terms of black and minority ethnic communities and we are not particularly well-visited by those who are less able in terms of their mobility,” he said.

“Our challenge is to see what we can do to reverse that, to encourage people from broader backgrounds and a wider range of personal mobilities into the national park to be able to benefit in the same way that those other groups do.”

Efforts to make the Lake District more inclusive have reportedly sparked a backlash among conservationists.

Sky News states that the Lake District National Park Authority is due to face a High Court judicial review in 2020 with regards to its refusal to ban 4x4 vehicles and motorbikes from some fell trails.

Meanwhile, Keswick Town Council has passed a vote of no confidence over the creation of an accessible tarmac path through a woodland area.