In these times of political upheaval, we have at least one consolation – that we can escape into the countryside and leave petty partisanship behind. That’s a sweet idea, but now rather behind the times. Richard Leafe, Chief Executive of the Lake District, has announced that the country’s largest and most popular national park needs to change. Nature is not doing enough to be relevant, as Mr Leafe explains:
‘We are deficient in terms of young people, we are deficient in terms of black and minority ethnic communities and we are not particularly well-visited by those who are less able in terms of their mobility… We need to be able to sell the national park to everybody in Britain, all society, and it’s important that it doesn’t just become exclusive to one single use group.’
OK, facts on the table, the Lake District is not, in and of itself, access friendly. It is the most north-westerly county in the country, and a good five hours from the capital.
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