SPEED boat enthusiasts are bracing themselves for another buffeting next week as Lake District planners take an increasingly hard line on the use of Windermere.

Having won a ten year battle to get a 10mph bylaw introduced on Windermere the Lake District National Park Authority is getting tough with organisations applying for speed limit exemptions.

On Tuesday members of the Windermere Record Attempts Committee are expecting the Lake District National Park Authority to throw out their application for a bylaw allowing the annual Autumn event to continue on the lake.

And at the same meeting members of the LDNPA are also expected to reject similar exemption applications from organisers of The British Classic Motorboat Rally and The Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club.

Meanwhile, the authority is expected to advise the Windermere Water Ski Association and Windermere Chamber of Trade that it will not discuss the voluntary introduction of an alternative management plan to allow the 10mph speed limit to be broken for recreational purposes.

The recommendation to reject the application from the Record Attempts Committee has come from the LDNPA's Windermere Panel.

Members felt records week involved high powered and noisy craft which occupied a significant part of the lake's northern basin and a report to the full LDNPA committee says: "If permitted to continue beyond the year 2004 the event would prejudice the National Park Authority's plans to safeguard and enhance quiet enjoyment of the park."

The chairman of the Windermere Record Attempts Committee, Robert Brown said he had received a letter from the LDNPA's solicitor John Chapman confirming that the authority was not going to support the exemption application and that he was "totally and utterly staggered" by the lack of consultation.

"The National Park Authority refused to speak to anyone prior to the 10mph speed limit inquiry and it would appear that they are just continuing down the same line," he said.

"How can a panel set up to recommend things to the full board make decisions without talking to the people involved?"

The future of the 30-year-old event now hangs in the balance although an option to move to Coniston, where record attempts are allowed to take place, could be considered by the committee.

Richard Solomon, vice chairman of racing with the Windermere Motor Boat Racing Club, said it would be "an absolute tragedy if there was no means of obtaining relief from the bylaw."

The club has 12 race days on the lake in the year.

And the chairman of the British Classic Motor Boat Rally committee, Graham Loney said: "They (the LDNPA) seem to be totally intransigent .

They gleefully feel that they have won the issue and they are totally ignoring everybody else's concerns."

The rally has been running for 11 years and attracts enthusiasts from all over the world.

There was nobody available at the LDNPA to comment t