THE Land Access and Recreation Association is one of the key groups working with the national park authority to maintain the Hierarchy of Trails experiment.

Geoff Wilson is deputy chairman of LARA and chair of the Hierarchy of Trail Routes Group.

As a keen motorcyclist, canoeist and walker who has "lived, worked and played in Cumbria" all his life, he believes that the key to the co-operative use of tracks by all the different user groups is education.

He said: "There will always be a percentage of vehicle users who are not willing to co-operate but that depends largely on the quality of education that goes on.

Twenty-five years ago no one would have believed smoking would become socially unacceptable.

I believe that given time and the right backing from other groups you can achieve a change in outlook."

Explaining the rationale behind the Hierarchy of Trails experiment, he said: "We are working from the premise that 25 years of trying to apply a legal solution to this problem just has not worked.

What was needed was a fairly active, dynamic system of management."

The Hierarchy of Trail Routes Group is mainly made up of vehicle users, Cumbria County Council and the national park authority.

Mr Wilson is also a member of the Trail Management Advisory Group - a panel of representatives of the different user groups of the trails.

It is also backing the hierarchy experiment.

Mr Wilson believes that the advisory group represents an opportunity to develop understanding between vehicle users and those on foot, bicycle or on horseback.

"Nobody is a sole user of the routes.

The vehicle users can not presume to have the monopoly on them," he said.

Motorbike and four-by-four users have also begun taking responsibility for their immediate environment by working in conjunction with national park authority wardens and Cumbria County Council to help preserve the roads and tracks within the experiment.

Mr Wilson believes that over the previous years the Hierarchy of Trails experiment has made progress.

"I believe the experiment is working.

I have got better things to do with my time than work on something that isn't.

Potentially it could serve as a model that other national parks and highway authorities can make great use of."