Authors: Sarah Swindley, Lake District Foundation and Hanna Latty, Lake District National Park Authority.
National Parks were founded in the same post war social reforms that saw the creation of the NHS in order to support the health of the nation, yet statistics on the profile of visitors to national parks show certain groups are especially disconnected:
"Most visits are made by the same (better off, less diverse) people repeatedly, and those who miss out are the older, the young – especially adolescents – and those from lower socio-economic groups and black, Asian and minority ethnic communities."
Final report on Landscapes Review by Julian Glover
Our own data from the Lake District
Wordsworth famously described the Lake District as ‘a sort of national property’ which he believed every person ‘had the right to enjoy.’ Our plan seeks to deliver this, helping to safeguard this property for the nation and give everyone this right.
Despite the immense challenges of Covid, we’ve continued to engage with our audiences. There are many voices, all to be valued, but with different lenses. Land managers, diverse visitor groups and conservation NGOs have informed our plans.
During engagement work we were asked: "Who sets the rules in these places and how does this shape them and how we design the infrastructure of the park? What happens when some communities want to enjoy the park in a different way?”
The large numbers of people visiting the Lakes following every Covid lockdown is evidence of the value people place on engagement with the natural environment. 88% of respondents in a recent Cumbria Wildlife Trust survey agreed: ‘Nature has helped me cope with stress and restrictions imposed because of Covid.’
At the same time, our engagement research to date shows many people want to visit the Lakes but are deterred for various reasons: culture, economics, ability:
"I took my sister in law to the Lakes…She was speaking Urdu…I felt really nervous and that people were looking and judging us." "I'd love to take my daughter there again…But…I can’t get there alone, I wouldn't feel safe, I've no transport and I can't afford it. Where would I start?"
“YouTubers I follow have these travel videos-you can follow the whole journey, 'this is where you buy your ticket…this is where the cash machine is'. For people like me, with anxiety, something like this would be really helpful to help me plan and visualise a journey."
So in answer to our question ‘Who’s Lake District is it anyway?’ our national park belongs to everybody and nobody, to the past and to the future. We need to continue to work with local communities, with all those who live and work here, but also with those who visit – and maybe wish to visit but don’t yet see how they can. We hope that our plans as presented give the starting point to this evolving work that secures the love of this special place far into the future.
To achieve this ambition however, we recognised the Partnership was not well placed to produce an action plan for change, as we are not representative of the audiences we are seeking to grow. So, we invited companies and organisations to bid for a commission which would recommend actions to reach and engage with underrepresented visitor audiences over the next 5 years. At the beginning of 2021, we appointed Place Innovation who carried out research over a period of three months. They carried out surveys and in-depth interviews with communities in the Lake District and across the North West, capturing new research from 47 perspectives from individual visitors, organisations and groups and businesses.
Being interviewed about visiting the Lake District.
The commission identified 7 recommendations to achieve a Lake District for everyone
Through our own work and the Lake District for everyone commission, we know there is a strong desire from everyone to improve the situation. Through this consultation, we are keen to learn whether you are, or would like to be, involved in actions that will help deliver a Lake District for everyone.
As part of the Landscapes Review, there was work undertaken with the Policy Lab team in the Cabinet Office, who carried out filmed ethnographic interviews and vox pops, spending time in people’s homes as well as visiting national landscapes with them.
They produced over 60 hours of footage which are particularly compelling, and among the most powerful evidence considered by the review. You can view a summary video of the evidence collected here
