Litter is a big problem in Castleton as the bins are overflowing and some people just don’t use them.
Traffic Congestion is a problem in the village to both locals and visitors. There is a large car park, with space for coaches, and public toilets. On very busy days people just park wherever they want even in front of peoples gates.
There is footpath erosion in Castleton resulting from overuse. This is particularly the case around popular natural attractions such as Mam Tor and Winnats Pass.
There is often conflict with other land users e.g. farmers and walkers. Tourists often ask villages questions and scare the elderly by shouting and looking through their windows
Tourists also cause pollution to the area by lighting barbeques and leaving mess around the area.
What are the opinions of visitors and locals?
The opinions of people vary: -
A 10 year old boy who thinks Castleton is a great place to live, he also says there is a downside to living in a lovely village like Castleton like its 20 miles to the nearest cinema, if they want to go swimming its 10 miles away in Buxton and they can’t ride there bike because the streets are so full and often at weekends they cant move the car because tourists block their gate.
A retired resident who has lived in Castleton all her life used to be able to buy everything she wanted from the village, but now cant because the gift shops have all taken over. They also say that they are scared to go out at night and even scared to go out in the day because if people always asking questions and looking through her window.
A day visitor has said that they live in Sheffield and goes to Castleton regularly to go for a walk and sometimes goes to the café and the pub at night but may decide to go somewhere else as it is often difficult to park and the ticket machine is often broken and the toilets get vandalised.
A young married couple who have lived all their lives in Castleton cant even afford to buy a house because the smallest house costs £60 000 and other people buy these small house as holiday homes. The local authority has sold a lot of the housing it used to rent out.
An environmentalist who is a member of an environmental organisation and who also lives in Sheffield acts as a pressure group in order to defend the countryside from inappropriate development. The environmentalist also says that many of the cherished places in Castleton have been removed forever
A resident commuter says that he has chosen to live in Castleton because he enjoys the idea of rural life. He also says that he had to pay rather a lot more for his house in Castleton than he would for one in Sheffield. He thinks that when he is older he would like to become the chairman of the parish council because a lot of changes need to be made.
As you can see the people in Castleton have different views and not all of the people can be happy.
What is the evidence of tourist and local facilities?
There is a lot of evidence of tourist and local facilities the base map shows the land usage of the Castleton area. It shows that there is more local use buildings than tourist buildings, it shows that most of the tourist use buildings all seem to be situated in the middle of the Castleton area and the local buildings seem to be to the right of the tourist buildings. Most of the residential buildings also seem to be to the right of the tourist facilities
What is the future of Castleton?
There is a future for Castleton but I don’t think that it will be in tourism due to the fat that that younger generations of people are not really interested in caverns and villages and so would rather be at home watching the television.
And if Castleton’s future is not in tourism it will probably have to open up quarries live hope or excavate the blue john from the caverns. Or perhaps they could build houses as Castleton is close to Sheffield and Manchester and has plenty of un-occupied land to do so.