SO, NICK Fieldhouse claims his 4x4 tourism experience is akin to being a farmer "for the day" (Gazette, October 3, ‘Debating 4x4 use in Lakes’).
Oh, please! I have yet to witness Kankku clients putting up a wall gap in the pouring rain, or feeding stock on the fell in the depths of winter.
Our upland farmers make their living by providing food we are increasingly going to depend on, and managing the land in the way we ask them to (many are in environmental management schemes).
Kankku and other 4x4 businesses make their money by eroding this sensitive landscape at the ratepayer’s expense. There is no comparison.
Mandy Lane
Oxen Park, Ulverston
Editor's note: the Gazette contacted Nick Fieldhouse of Kankku and here is his response:
"As I passed the cam stones over to my farmer friend on the other side of a wall gap the other day, one as such described by your reader, he muttered to me: "I guess you could say your 4x4 experience pays the tax that pays the subsidy to allow us farmers to keep our lifestyle."
That sounded grossly simplistic to me, even in an era where the mythological figure of the all-conquering farmer perhaps isn’t what it was, but from that careless statement, and after nipping a finger under the sharp end of a heavy stone, parties on both sides of the wall agreed there is no reason why an old Land Rover shouldn’t rattle down a country lane at ratepayers' expense, when its occupants are contributing to the rates."
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