What is it?
National Parks contain the most beautiful, spectacular and dramatic areas of countryside in England. The government’s 2019 Landscapes Review: National Parks and AONBs (known as the 'Glover Review') rightly highlights that these places are national assets supported in part through state funding and therefore are available for everyone to enjoy and support the nation’s health and wellbeing. However, Glover highlighted that visitors are not always representative of the full spectrum of British society.
The time is right to begin addressing the disconnect of some groups, and help the nation’s recovery from the global pandemic, by supporting people’s health and wellbeing through access to the outdoors.
Through our work on the Lake District for Everyone Key Outcome, we aim to increase our awareness of the needs of a diverse audience of people, to increase support to underserved groups to access the outdoors to benefit from the Lake District’s inspiring landscape, and to improve the representation of voices in developing projects going forward.
What we want to achieve is set out in the Partnership Plan here:
We are proud to be a supporting partner of the Black Nature in Residence Programme (BNiR) – we have enjoyed collaborating with and learning from the appointed creative, Wajid Hussain. The BNiR programme, which is unique, ambitious and ground-breaking, consists of five residences for five creatives of the Global Majority in each of five northern National Parks, including the Lake District National Park. This Black-led project aims to contribute to the changing narrative around who has a right to have a connection with nature and start adding more diverse voices to the climate crisis facing society today.
With funding from Arts Council England, BNiR is an exciting opportunity for creatives within the northern regions to be in residence within nature for one year. We recognise that to tackle the environmental challenges facing society today we need to increase our impact by collaborating with leaders from more diverse backgrounds. BNiR is a great project to help the Partnership advance this work.
Wajid has already ran workshops with a number of local schools, with more to follow as his residency continues throughout 2024. More about Wajid can be found here: Wajid Hussain – Black Nature in Residence.
Photo caption: Wajid in action at St Martin and St Mary’s Primary School, running a creative writing workshop as part of his residency, c/o Ruth Suddaby, Lake District National Park Authority
Cumbria Tourism, a Partner of the Lake District National Park Partnership, chairs the Accessible Cumbria Partnership, which is a network of businesses and organisations across the county. The Accessible Cumbria Partnership works together to improve access to the area. Great progress has been made this year:
The Accessible Cumbria Partnership has launched the Fells for All Festival which runs from 1 May to 31 July 2024. The celebration unlocks access to a range of open spaces enabling access for people with physical impairments alongside those with hidden disabilities such as neurodiversity, arthritis or hearing loss.
Cumbrian based charity Outdoor Mobility is making amazing places accessible through a growing network of all-terrain Trampers (all-terrain mobility scooters). Working with LDNPP partners, Cumbria Outdoor Mobility have launched 5 new Tramper sites in Cumbria since summer 2021 and 7 new tramper friendly routes.
Photo: getting out and about in the Lake District using a Tramper, c/o Cumbria Tourism
The new Lake District sites are:
The expansion of the Tramper network is supported by the National Lottery Community Fund and the Cumbria Community Foundation.
Source: Cumbria Tourism
A new immersive and engaging trail at Whinlatter Forest opened in 2023. It showcases not only the story of England’s only mountain forest but also highlights what makes the Lake District World Heritage site one of the most special places on the planet. There’s only one word to describe it – Wow!
Visitors can explore the Wow trail by Tramper with Outdoor Mobility. There are also cane seats available to borrow free of charge. These initiatives encourage visitors with lesser mobility to get outdoors and experience the new trail and its interpretation.
The trail tells the story of Whinlatter and helps visitors truly experience the forest. Foresty England – which manages the site on behalf of the nation - also offer guided experiences with knowledgeable staff and volunteers.
Photo: Interpretation boards on the Whinlatter Forest trail
Source: Forestry England
The Collaboration Hub is funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and managed by ACTion with Communities in Cumbria on behalf of the Partnership. The Hub aims to facilitate conversations on challenging issues with Partners and Lake District communities, sometimes through conventional means but with opportunities to explore a subject in other ways, such as through artistic expression.
Through the Collaboration Hub at least 6 in depth conversations have taken place in 2023-24 (engaging over 100 people between the ages of 14 and 80), or are underway, to explore:
Source: ACTion with Communities in Cumbria
