National Park launches new Tilberthwaite survey

 

The planned survey dates have now been changed. In a letter to the Tilberthwaite management group, of which we are a member, the National Park says that because we published the dates on this website the results would be 'skewed and unrepresentative'.

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You can read our response here. It can be summed up like this:

 

• After two previous surveys we already have unequivocal evidence about damage to the special qualities of the area.

• Limiting the target group to people who happen to be on the track on a specific day excludes key stakeholders.

• The survey does not mention the impact on special qualities (such as tranquillity).

• The LDNPA presents the legal status of the route as unchangeable fact. But the whole point is that they have it in their power to change the status in order to protect the special qualities of the National Park/World Heritage Site.

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None of these comments, which we fed back to the LDNPA, were taken into account.

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The UNESCO World Heritage Committee sets out clear requirements for the LDNPA: it should draw up a regulatory strategy for visitor management based on the protection of OUV (Outstanding Universal Value). The nomination dossier for World Heritage status contains detailed descriptions of the attributes of OUV for Langdale, as it does for other valleys. That should be the basis for any decision, not surveys of small groups of people who happen to use a specific track on a specific day.

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