Meeting Today Decides Lakes Free Walks Future

Lake District National Park Authority bosses are meeting today, Monday, to decide whether to scrap the free guided walks programme.

The authority has to cut 9 per-cent from its budget and proposed the end of the free walks programme after saying that the participants it attracts are "middle-aged, middle-class white people".

One alternative, according to the BBC, would be for the 4,500 walks per year programme to continue, but with walkers being charged £10 per head to take part in the walks which are led by voluntary wardens.

The authority says that the government is encouraging national parks to attract minorities, inner city children and disabled people into the outdoors. An ethnic minorites campaign group, the Black Environment Network (BEN) however, has opposed the axing of the free walks programme.

BEN says that getting involved in the outdoors for Asian and black people is a 'learning process'. The organisationbelieves that rather than scrapping the programme, greater efforts should be made to encourage different groups of people to get involved in them.

Reports suggest that ending the free walks programme would save some £32,000 annually, the bulk of which is paid out in expenses to the volunteers who lead the walks.

More details when we have them.