All these factors affect the large numbers of tourists visiting the Lake District, so naturally the locals of the area have adapted to accommodate the vast amounts of people staying there. As a result of this 60% of industry in the Lake District is tourism related. Unfortunately the tourism is seasonal, and come winter time when less people are visiting the area, most income is reduced and business is highly unreliable. Many tourists wish to buy holiday homes in the area, meaning that locals can no longer afford the property prices and are being forced to live elsewhere. Meanwhile, the problem of seasonal population increases. But the townspeople are reliant on the income from tourism.
These small villages and towns which are aimed for the tourist trade are known as ‘honey pots’ (as in bees to honey), and face more problems aside from property prices. The roads in these small areas can’t cope with the numbers of people travelling to the Lake District (which is close to the M6) in cars. The car parks and coach parks fill up by 11 am. The traffic fills the towns with noise pollution and air pollution. The people leave the roads in bad condition. And then the tourists visit the mountains and walks and the problem grows.
Footpath erosion (as can be seen from my poster) is a huge problem in the Lake District too. 87% of people who visit the park use the foot paths, and this is leading to serious erosion of the landscape, to the extent that the scars in the land can be seen from satellites. The people using the footpaths are disrespectful to the landscape, littering, and straying from the walks.
This is a problem because the land is all privately owned - largely by farmers. They are paid subsidies by the government to preserve the land, but when people are constantly vandalising walls and littering, it is very hard for farmers to keep up the land. Often people leave gates open, allowing the sheep to stray which may result in fatal road accidents. Sheep themselves are directly involved in maintaining the landscape, as could be seen during the recent foot and mouth crises. With the sheep all killed the landscape took a dramatically different picture. We can see that the irony is that the farmers rely on the parks, but the parks too rely on the farmers.
It is many peoples opinion therefore that the National Parks are being ‘loved to death’. They think that ‘people don’t appreciate it’ and that the tourists, who often outnumber the locals, are the cause of traffic, pollution, erosion and destroying the beautiful serenity of the Lake District. The parks wardens however, whilst acknowledging the problem, suggest that there are solutions to these problems. Traffic can be stemmed by improving the public transport to the area and charging entry to cars coming to the park. The problem with this solution is that this excludes the poor from the parks, which are supposed to be for everyone.
It is suggested that footpath erosion could be improved by building artificial paths, although people complain they wish to experience the landscape as it is. Another idea is that of zoning, which involves closing off particularly badly eroded areas until they rejuvenate and there switch the restriction to elsewhere. Also to encourage people to certain areas of the parks so that other areas can be protected. Unfortunately it within no ones rights to decide that one area is more important than another. On Lake Windermere, where 8,000 power boats are used at one time, a speed limit may be imposed although it is deemed likely that people will simply go elsewhere in the park to use their boats instead. Maybe by placing car parks further away from hotspots it will discourage people from visiting, but this is an impossible solution for everything.
In light of all this information it is my opinion that the Lake District is being loved to death. I believe that if things continue as they have been the scenery and landscapes loved so well will be destroyed. I disagree that there is a solution to all these problems, and if there is, it is yet to be found. Otherwise, there won’t be any Parks left to visit.
Camille Watts