I read the Podium article 'Let's protect the jewel among national parks' (Gazette, April 11) by Fritz Goothues. I wondered when he would get to the removal of the right recreational motor vehicle users have to use the Unsealed Unclassified County Roads (UUCRs) in Little Langdale.

Sure enough he got there, demanding TROs to disenfranchise the small numbers who use these roads, and have done so, in the case of motorcyclists for more than 100 years, and car/4x4 drivers since at least the 1950s.

He states that in the past such roads were used only by walkers and horse-drawn carts, which also applies to almost the whole of the current road network - motorways, bypasses etc excepted.

Motor vehicle rights exist on 3.7 per cent of the unsealed Rights of Way in the Lake District National Park. That's 70 miles out of 2,000; and there are also thousands of acres of Open Access Land where a walker can expect never to meet an unauthorised motor vehicle, or a bicycle for that matter.

There are measured to be 20 motorcycles and up to 40 4x4s per week on the most used UUCRs, a number which has not increased greatly in more than 20 years.

Maybe if Mr Groothues feels so strongly he would be better engaged in demanding the removal of leisure motor vehicles from all minor roads - such as the Wrynose and Bleatarn passes, which are very close to the UUCRs he wants closed.

Were the huge numbers of motor vehicle users of such Tarmac'ed routes banned, then their availability for quiet walking and cycling and the reduction in environmental damage would hugely outstrip the perceived benefit of closing a few miles of UUCR.

Steve Pighills

Kendal