I write the report 'Call for 4x4s ban in Lakes' (Gazette, August 16), which included the subhead, referring to the view of World Heritage Watch, 'Off-roading dubbed inappropriate for WHS'.

They are obviously unaware that off-roading without legal authority is a criminal offence in the UK and police have powers to seize vehicles from offenders.

What we are talking about is the legal use of an unsealed road by vehicles. The argument is more about the sustainability of the route and/or the lack of suitable maintenance given the current level of use.

The WHW says the issue caused by 4x4 using the routes is soil compaction and erosion yet the photograph used with the report shows the bedrock beneath a vehicle’s wheels!

The single greatest erosive force is simply water and 50 years of neglect by local authorities has allowed drains to fail and rainwater run-off destroy routes. The A590 and Storm Desmond testify that even heavy engineering can fail, never mind an un-maintained stony lane.

Clearly the WHW is yet another non-accountable, self-appointed panel of experts seeking to tell us how to manage our countryside without regard to well-established law and regulation decided upon by Parliament and implemented by local authorities - all of which have democratic validation!

While the increase in traffic volume is marked, it is an essential consequence of an Act of Parliament from 2006 which removed vehicular rights from many unsurfaced routes in England and Wales, thereby forcing the issue.

The legislation paid no regard to the sustainability of routes or of level of use, nor indeed the county highways map!

The existing traffic was squeezed on to a far fewer number of routes.

Another effect of the act was the abandonment of the LDNPA Hierarchy of Trail Routes, which was one of the most effective management tools that had been developed by the authority and the users. So if the WHS inscription rests on preventing the use of a minor road by vehicles then perhaps it isn’t worth the paper it is, presumably, printed on.

The saddest thing is that WHW fails to express any concern about the real issues facing all protected landscapes – National Parks and AONBs – namely, but not exclusively: loss of habitats, serious declines in bio-diversity, increasingly virulent plant diseases, non-native invasive species, over-intensive farming, chronic and long-standing under-funding of nature conservation, excessive visitor pressures of all kinds, inappropriate development and climate change.

David Askew

Kendal