GEOFF Wilson (Letters, February 13, 'By whose judgement?') states that research shows "visitors to the Lake District are too heavily weighted towards older, able-bodied white people", but does not say which research he is referring to.

Nor does he say what is meant by “too heavily weighted". Too heavily for what? Weighted how?

Older people are likely to number highly in visitor figures anywhere, since in retirement they have greater freedom to visit. Nor is it surprising the “able-bodied” would figure significantly in a mountainous area like the Lake District.

Richard Leafe’s insistence that the Lake District National Park should not “become exclusive to one single-use group” feels like pushing at an open door to me.

In my experience most inhabitants of the Lake District are friendly and welcoming to those who want to come and enjoy the national park for what it is. There is a whole range of ways in which people do enjoy the park, from the adventurous and active to the more sedate.

I also see lots of younger people doing so, as well as valuable organisations helping to encourage the less “able-bodied” and others for whom the opportunities to discover this enjoyment are limited. I would point, for instance, to the work of the Eric Wright Trust at Water Park on Coniston Water, giving children from inner-city schools the chance to learn about the natural world and their relation to it.

Where I have difficulty with Mr Leafe is when he says (according to Mr Wilson) the national park needs to be “sold to everybody in Britain”. Will he only be satisfied when “everybody” in Britain has visited it? And what about all the visitors from abroad? I have never been to the Brecon Beacons National Park, but that is my decision. It doesn’t mean I am excluded from it.

The second of the national park authority’s statutory purposes is: “To promote opportunities for the understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the National Park by the public” (Environment Act 1995). There is an essential difference between this and “selling” the national park.

The national park authority should certainly try to ensure the park is open to everybody in Britain who wants to come and enjoy it for what it is, but not to sell it to them, which is presumably the job of the tourist board.

Even that openness is restricted by the Sandford Committee’s recommendation in 1974 (on which the much-quoted Sandford Principle is based) that enjoyment of the national parks “shall be in a manner and by such means as will leave their natural beauty unimpaired for the enjoyment of this and future generations".

The Friends of the Lake District’s campaign is an attempt to re-enforce the national park authority's primary purpose: “To conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage” of the park. It does not aim to preserve it for the exclusive enjoyment of any one group, but to preserve the special qualities that made it worth establishing as a national park in the first place. After that, anyone who finds enjoyment in such special qualities (natural beauty, wildlife, cultural heritage) is welcome.

There will be people who are looking for other things which the Lake District does not provide. Fair enough. We should not, however, feel the need to sacrifice the national park’s founding principles to accommodate them.

R Baxter

Ulverston