UNIVERSITY researchers have appealed to Cumbrian communities for help gathering information.

Dr Jo Guiver and Dr Andrew Carmichael, from the University of Central Lancashire, are conducting a study into how people in The Lakes see themselves and their surroundings.

Are the beautiful landscapes a public good, or should locals be prioritised?

Dr Guiver said: "Some people think the Lake District is very small, others say it's vast.

"It all depends on perspective so we really want as many people as possible to take part.

"If enough people take it, we can draw conclusions from the results and see if there are patterns emerging."

Last summer, at the beginning of the pandemic, they acquired funding to conduct qualitative interviews about how people viewed their environment.

They found that a surprising amount of people respected the significant area of beauty should be available to tourists - and were willing to put up with inconveniences such as increased traffic to ensure this.

Now, the University of Central Lancashire educators want to expand this study.

They have created a questionnaire and want to distribute it as widely as possible.

Dr Guiver continued: "People last year really enjoyed being able to cycle on roads which didn’t normally feel safe, seeing more wildlife, and nearly all said they were very privileged to be here."

"However, they were very generous – they said this is a national asset."

"We want to make sure that when we report on this, we have a diversity of views to make better quality of findings.

"People so far have said it's a really interesting survey which made them think about their priorities. It made them ponder things which they hadn’t really had the framework to think about before."

They say that if enough people participate, it could be valuable information which could impact policy decisions in the future.

"There are a lot of issues in the Lake District that don’t go anywhere – they never get solved.

"If we can figure out how people view both their lives and the lives of others around the country, we can look at fixing things for the better."

To participate, go to https://bit.ly/LakeDistrictFutures and complete the survey.