ACTORS Sean Connery and Roger Moore are on the invitation list for a glittering James Bond-themed ball to help raise money for the fight against the 10mph speed limit on Windermere.

But the prospect of rubbing tuxedo shoulders with the 007 stars over Martinis at the Low Wood Hotel bar has yet to be confirmed, as organisers are still awaiting responses from Connery and Moore to their invitations.

Campaigner and co-organiser Tony Kemp, of Windermere Action Force, said the ball tomorrow (Saturday) was designed to raise more than £12,000 "to help fuel the fight" to overturn the speed limit on Windermere, which is to come into force in 2005. Tickets for the ball have completely sold out, and organisers have had to turn people away.

In a Bond-style stunt, fellow campaigner Matt Royle intends to kick off the evening by wakeboarding off the Low Wood jetty dressed only in his tux.

The campaign group invited Lake District National Park Authority chairman Michael Bentley to speak at the occasion, but said he had declined to attend.

l A compact disc and information pack about the Windermere 10mph speed limit is being launched at a major education conference in the Midlands later this month by the Lake District National Park Authority's Education and Field Studies Council in an attempt to give teachers of GCE "A" level students an insight into the conflict and how it was resolved.

The information pack Managing Windermere Lake will be available first to delegates at the Geography Association Conference at the University of Derby from Thursday, April 24. The pack includes a case study of the 1994 public inquiry, extracts from the inspector's report, a sample examination question, photographs, press cuttings, summaries of evidence from those for and against the speed limit, and details of how students might run their own public inquiry.

The pack also looks briefly into why the LDNPA decided to impose a five-year moratorium before allowing the new regulations to come into force in March 2005, and what impact the speed limit might have on the local economy and tourist industry.

The authority's education and events manager Anne Blackburn said she thought the pack would make an ideal case study for geography teachers.

April 17, 2003 14:30