ASK anyone who has been overtaken by a mountain rescue Land Rover and they will tell you that the teams are pretty nippy when dashing to a rescue, but a letter shown to me by Rod Berry, of Endmoor, made me realise that they must be speedy at other times as well.

Rod is running for the Kendal Mountain Search and Rescue team in this year's 40-mile Keswick to Barrow walk on May 10, a walk for many perhaps, but a run for the marathon runners who head the field of thousands and usually finish in under four hours.

The letter from the team giving him details says: "The event starts at 6am, just north of Thirlmere ... Please arrive at the Kendal Mountain Rescue base in Busher Walk, Kendal, at the latest by 5.45am. A team vehicle will leave promptly to ensure that we get to the start on time."

I make that 15 minutes for a journey of around 24 miles allowing for Windermere and Ambleside traffic and the sharp bends just south of Grasmere, I reckon that they will need to be doing 110mph most of the way.

A NEW DODGE

A SEDBERGH reader who says: "Please keep me anonymous if you print this" writes: "I understand that Fazeley, near Tamworth, has applied to change its name to Buffalo in order to draw the local authority's attention to neglect of its interests.

If American town names become popular we could apply to have Sedbergh changed to Dodge to draw attention to the fact that on the approach to Sedbergh and within the town we have to dodge potholes and sunken drains.

In addition, when walking around the town we have to regularly dodge onto the road as the pavement is obstructed in so many places by trees or hedges that overhang the owner's boundary."

A nice idea, but calling places by American names is not an entirely new idea.

Back in the days when the discovery of iron in Furness brought massive expansion of shipbuilding and associated industries, Barrow-in-Furness was known as Klondike because it was more like the Wild West frontier than an English industrial town.

Perhaps readers can come up with other suggestions for Americanising South Lakeland names, but please don't suggest Tombstone for Grange-over-Sands or it will only incur the wrath of the inhabitants.

BRIDGING THE YEARS

SO THE Morecambe Bay barrage is back on the agenda.

It has been one of the enduring stories of my journalistic career.

Already well-established as an idea when I arrived in these parts in 1972, it has, over the years, returned to council agendas with the same endearing regularity as discussion on dog muck, parking and increasing councillors' expenses.

I am told that railway engineer George Stephenson first suggested the idea in the 19th century, but the Victorians shied away from it as too big a project and built the Arnside viaduct instead.

Hopefully the latest scheme will come to fruition, as it seems to me a pity to waste the enormous power generated by the tide rushing up and down the bay twice a day.

And while they are at it, why not build a 12-mile long string of wind turbines on top that should provide enough electricity for the whole of South Lakeland with enough left over for Morecambe to boost its tourist image by keeping its lights on all year round.

As a side benefit I am sure the bridge will also be a boon to fishermen and will be lined every night with salmon poachers slinging their hooks into the racing tide.

April 10, 2003 15:00