Volunteer rangers called an emergency meeting this week in a bid to safeguard the future of the Lake District National Park Authority's endangered events programme.

Around 60 volunteers turned up to Wednesday's last-minute meeting in Grasmere to try to save some of the authority's 900 events including the popular free guided walks.

Last week, in the wake of the authority's contentious recommend-ation to scrap its events programme and refocus on attracting ethnic minorities, disabled people and urban youth, The Westmorland Gazette launched its Save the Walks Campaign.

The campaign, which is backed by Cumbria Tourist Board, Westmorland and Lonsdale MP Tim Collins and Gazette readers, urges LDNPA bosses to rethink their recommendation, which if rubber-stamped would see: l The end of the volunteer guided walks which have introduced thousands to the fells.

l The end of Brockhole's event days.

l The end of map and compass days which teach novices how to navigate the fells something many feel is essential in the wake of the Countryside and Rights Of Way Act, which will open up swathes of countryside to the public.

l The LDNPA disinvest from its tourist information centres.

It would also see up to a third of the authority's voluntary rangers quit their jobs.

Volunteer ranger Jamie Green told the Gazette the group had been approached by the LDNPA to come up with ways to save the walks.

"We do want the support of the national park if we are to proceed with the walks. We are hoping to produce the evidence to be presented to the LDNPA to convince them of the value of the guided walks, the support they have and their potential value in the future."

He added there was a "serious mistrust" between rangers and senior management at the authority and said many volunteers disputed the claim by Lake District National Park officer Paul Tiplady that it costs the authority £8.30 per head to fund the free guided walks.

He said many volunteers believed the LDNPA boss had used "creative accounting" and claimed the figure was more like £3.44 per head. He said the inclusion of training for walks in remote areas (£7,800) and of a seven-month co-ordinator post (£13,000) should not have been used in Mr Tiplady's calculation that it cost the authority around £40,000 to fund the free walks as they were not in force yet.

However, spokesman for the LDNPA Mick Casey defended the authority's mathematics. "The financial figures are the figures we believe it will cost us to run the volunteer-led walks £37,300 this year. We divided this by the number of people who attended the walk last year 4,500 because they are the most recent figures we have," he said. "It is unlikely this year that the number of people attending the walks would change that much."

Mr Green added volunteers were also worried that the £83,000, which funds the events programme, was being used to pay for the authority's failing planning department.

The department lost out on £200,000 of government money last year and is set to lose out on a further £200,000 this year after it failed to hit government targets for processing planning applications.

Last week Mr Tiplady admitted the losses and said the department was one of the "worst performing" in the country but denied the events had been cut to prop up planning. He said the authority chose quality over quantity and therefore failed to meet Whitehall targets.