HOW good to see the tourists returning for 2019 season - I don't think!

I have previously written to the Gazette expressing my concerns at the ever-increasing numbers of tourists coming here when we just don't have the infrastructure to cope.

Easter weekend confirmed all of my concerns.

I wonder whether the 'powers that be' have ever visited Bowness on, for example, a bank holiday weekend. I know that Cumbria Tourism's Gill Haigh is paid to encourage more visitors but she really needs to see what it is like 'on the ground'

For much of the four-day Easter period Bowness was close to overflowing. At times it was well-nigh impossible to travel from Windermere to Bowness and we had the situation that we have never seen before of cars being parked on double yellow lines on Glebe Road. This dangerously narrowed down the carriageway.

Add to that the increasing incidence of camper vans using Glebe Road as a camp site (either because Braithwaite Fold is full or a reluctance to pay to camp) and you get an indication of the problem we face.

Windermere Jetty, wonderful museum that it is, is now causing visitors to park on Rayrigg Road in ever-increasing numbers with the attendant problem for other road users and pedestrians.

Without considerable improvements to the infrastructure, coupled with persuading motorists to stop driving into and around the Lake District, we are going to get into a totally unacceptable situation for those of us who live here.

Please, Cumbria Tourism and other tourism organisations and businesses stop encouraging increasing use of our beautiful area

David Thomas

Bowness