So, how do you make the Lake District 'change and diversify' because it is too heavily weighted toward 'white middle-class able-bodied people'?

[Nanny0gg]

Richard Leafe, the Cumbria park's chief executive, said the Unesco World Heritage site must change to merit continued public funding.

I mean, it's mountains and lakes. What can you do?

And isn't that a tad patronising as well?

Stair lifts up the mountains 😛

Dartmoor has the Ten Tors walk every year, where schools, scout groups etc in the South West can enter teams to walk 35, 45 or 55 miles over a weekend. This is open to all secondary schools not just independent ones. There is also a one day walk for children with disabilities.

We live near Dartmoor, many people in the area don’t go walking, camping there etc and the majority of people who live in this area are white. If people don’t like hill walking, they don’t like hill walking, doesn’t matter what colour your skin is.

There are some tracks round Dartmoor that are reasonably accessible as are needed for army transport.

We went for a walk a few weeks ago in the forest of dean, a few minutes in (ten at most) there was a style so we couldn’t to any further. It was flat either side of the fence, so a self closing gate would have worked.

In FoD? Where were you walking @simonJT?

FoD is where I live and I don't think I have ever seen a style on a forest walk. Council and Forestry Commission pride themselves on not putting such obstacles in. If you let me know where I could report it and, if it is within their remit, they would probably replace it pretty quickly.

Not sure really, we had been staying in Coleford and we drove there as a group, I can ask though and find out which bit it was for you. Thank you for offering to report it.

Uhhh don't touch the Lakes. That's the only place I have to escape to and truly relax. Leave it as natural as possible.

By the way I'm the very lowest of the "classes" and I've always saved up to go there.

@SimonJT I will happily report it to a friend, FoD councillor who is pretty hot on accessibility. He is equally hot on protecting the forest from unnecessary changes... so he's a pretty even handed grump

I don't think compared to other recreation activities or sports that hill walking is expensive. You need a jacket and boots for sure. They can be picked up for £50 or so and last ages. I'm not saying £50 is nothing, it's beyond many sadly but soft play, trampolining, cinema etc are expensive too. As leisure activities go it can be a full day out, exercise, mindfulness for not much. Everyone should get the chance to see if they like it as it can become a lifetime love. For those of us with mobility issues sometimes the outdoors is a wonderful antidote to feeling locked in by your limitations.

Education. Education. Education.
They could educate the wildlife, horses taught not to kick, stampede or hang out in awkward places, plants not to grow in inconvenient fashions, Mountains taught to be a bit lower and flatter, Water to be a bit drier and less drowny.
Obviously the weather needs educating, all that sudden exclusionary wind and rain turning up with no manners.

Or public transport could be improved and they could give away free hiking gear...and pay for people to take time off work to go on boring walks they have no interest in.

Who did the creepy people watching to gauge this? Did they have a clipboard with White skin, Brown skin, Hiking boots, Primark uggs, Carried by staff, Carrying Buckfast tick boxes?

I spent every summer and other school holiday from the age of 9 to 17 in the Lake District. I was brought up in a children's home and we were given the use of facilities such as halls and schools to use. There were, even back then, holiday camps for inner city or disadvantaged children alongside us and we used to meet up for cricket matches etc.

I think the only thing that can be changed is the transport system really. You can't start tearing up the Park to add things or it wouldn't be the same place it is. I think that the people who want to go and can afford it, already do so.

When I was doing a recent sociology paper it was interesting to learn that many cultures don't 'do' the countryside because it's considered beneath them. After all, if you have enough money to live in a city why would you want to be in the countryside with the peasants. Maybe that is partially sometching to do with it.

I was lucky enough to grow up near The Lakes, and now lucky enough to have Dartmoor, exmoor and the new forest within easy reach. We go to all of them and we can pretty much spend the whole weekend not seeing another soul (outside of the towns) white middle class or otherwise.

There must be something going on, or the tourists there wouldn't be so overwhelmingly white.

Yes clearly there’s a sinister plot dreamt up by one man and his dog at the Lake District branch of some sort of covert white supremacy operation to make sure that only white people are ever allowed to visit the Lake District. I mean surely that can be the only explanation.

Maybe that’s why youth hostels now separate sleeping accommodation by self declared gender rather than actual sex. I definitely don’t want a penis in my shared dorm, even if the person it is attached to identifies as a woman.

I’m sure most YHA customers don’t know they are doing it, though, as they never make it clear in the signage.

Those saying Hill walking, camping etc will only appeal to certain people and similar - who are these "certain people"? Rich people? Able bodied people? White people?

Or perhaps they just mean people who love being outside . Plenty of middle class white people hate walking in the countryside.

No-one’s proposing flattening mountains or tarmacing all of the countryside. They’re suggesting resurfacing an existing path so that it’s suitable for wheelchairs, buggies, and people with disabilities. Short, well-surfaced beginner walking routes are a great way to get people who aren’t Serious Walkers to enjoy a day in the countryside, and we should have more of them. I’m disappointed by how many people are using this to get into a froth about minorities and ‘PC gone mad’.

Also interesting to see that they’ve had to ban camping in parts of the Loch Lomond National Park because of the , umm, non-traditional type of campers caused too many problems (fires, litter, drunkenness, noise etc)

I am sick of political correctness and box ticking now.

How lovely for you that you live a life unfettered by the need for society to be admonished behave correctly toward you, or the need to have boxes ticked on your behalf.

Privilege is invisible to the privileged ...

Privilege is invisible to the privileged

This

Short, well-surfaced beginner walking routes are a great way to get people who aren’t Serious Walkers to enjoy a day in the countryside, and we should have more of them. I’m disappointed by how many people are using this to get into a froth about minorities and ‘PC gone mad’.

Reminds me of a song lyrics..

They paved Paradise
Put up a parking lot

... All the way through putting trees in a tree museum...

Oh! That film, Silent Running

Uhhh don't touch the Lakes. That's the only place I have to escape to and truly relax. Leave it as natural as possible.
If you want it left as it is at present why do you want to secure more funding?

@CuriousaboutSamphire

Don't be ridiculous. There's already a footpath there, they just want to make it accessible to wheelchairs, why on earth would anyone object to that?

ForalltheSaints, isn't that patronising? Surely non-white people are capable of realising that they could do what they saw a white presenter do?

These places need a few more pubs and cafes to make them more interesting.
The scenery is lovely but after a long walk I’d love to sit and have a cider and a hot dog.

@CuriousaboutSamphire should we return the A66 to a gravel track, or is tarmac only a problem if it’s for people to walk on?

You can take kids from poor areas camping in the holidays, you can you can improve the accessibility of footpaths to disabled people.. there's loads you can do

Spot on. Decent transport access, better access for people with a degree of disability, take children to visit from the schools which don't supply a stream of well heeled visitors, advertise more in the target demographics.

There is no inherent reason why a more diverse group of people (who pay the taxes to provide teh funding) wouldn't want to visit the great national park spaces but access and knowing about it makes a difference.

The idea that opening up the parks to a more diverse range of people equates to "ice cream vans" is sheer snobbery.

I gather it’s already packed with people on tiny, rural roads. What would the benefit to the area be in packing in even more tourists?