IT WAS heartening to read (Gazette, April 11, '4x4 issues are probed') that the National Trust has added its voice to growing calls to exclude motor vehicles from the green lanes of Tilberthwaite and Litttle Langdale.
The primary aim and purpose of a national park authority is to "conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage" of their designated areas.
Since July 2017, the Lake District National Park is also a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The Sandford Principle, a concept of management of protected landscapes incorporated into the 1995 Environment Act, clearly states that "where irreconcilable conflicts exist between conservation and public enjoyment, then conservation interest should take priority".
If the environment being protected loses its special qualities, then it will no longer be the treasured place that people come to enjoy.
As Fritz Groothues points out in his Podium on the same subject (Gazette, April 11), the law couldn't be clearer. The Lake District National Park Authority needs only to refer back to its primary purpose to see what it must do.
Driving motor vehicles on green lanes in areas of outstanding natural beauty cannot be interpreted as "promoting opportunities for understanding and enjoyment of the national park by the public". It is, in fact, degrading the landscape, polluting the air and precluding any hope of quiet enjoyment.
Gill Cowton
Grasmere
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