The Lake District and surrounding area is often promoted as the adventure capital of the nation.

With a superb landscape of fells, woods and lakes, it is a wonderful place to go out walking and explore the great outdoors.

Recreational and sporting cycling is also popular, with plenty of cycle shops and cycling clubs and events like the recent Tour de Staveley attracting lots of interest.

But a new report had indicated that, in terms of day-to-day journeys, people in South Lakeland are less likely to walk or cycle than those in other parts of England.

Cumbria County Council’s Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP) quotes figures from Sport England that say just 1.3 per cent of adults in South Lakeland ‘cycle for travel’ at least three days a week – that is below the England figure of 2.3 per cent.

It also says that ten per cent of adults walk for travel at least three days a week, below the England figure of 15.1 per cent.

The report states: “Despite high levels of car dependence across Kendal district, a high proportion of everyday journeys to work, school or the shops are within a distance which is easily achievable either on bike or on foot.”

Why are local people not walking or cycling for such trips? During the first lockdown there was evidence of many more people cycling for recreation, so clearly people own bikes.

Worries about potential hazards on busy roads put some people off.

Maybe also we are just too used to the convenience of jumping in the car, although high fuel prices should be acting as a deterrent.

But walking and cycling boost physical and mental health and are good for the environment. And there’s a definite feeling of satisfaction when you get somewhere under your own steam.

It is pleasing, therefore, to learn the LCWIP suggests potential cycling infrastructure improvements to Kendal, including more segregated cycleways and strong visual priory for cyclists at side junctions.

Walking improvements could include continuing footways across junctions to enforce pedestrian priory.

Let’s hope some of these come to fruition.