LANGDALE Valley residents are being invited to a brain storming public meeting organised by the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) to discuss projects that will be of benefit to those who live and visit the area.

Over the last two years the BMC has been considering how to improve the contribution that climbers, hill-walkers and mountaineers make to rural communities where they practice their activities.

Langdale has been chosen as the first area for these ideas to be developed and a public meeting has been organised at Chapel Stile Village Hall on January 11, starting at 6pm.

BMC member Rosalind Taylor, who runs a Warwick-based countryside management consultancy firm, said she hoped the meeting would identify commercial, community or environmental opportunities for visitors to the valley.

"It's a blank sheet. We don't want to pre-empt anything that people might want to do," said Mrs Taylor. "Langdale has been chosen is because it's a very beautiful area and it's also a very self contained area with its own community."

She said around three to four "sensible and practical" ideas mooted at the meeting would be developed, piloted and then monitored. "We would like them to become part of what visitors could potentially do when they come to Langdale," said Mrs Taylor.

Local residents, landowners, businesses and representatives of the outdoor leisure community are being invited to the open meeting as well as visiting climbers, walkers, climbing hut owners and users. Former Kendal mayor and climber David Birkett will open the meeting and set the scene.

"This approach has not, to our knowledge, been tried elsewhere," said Mrs Taylor. "It is therefore quite innovative and we hope it will be sufficiently successful to be worth trying elsewhere."

January 3, 2003 10:00