Describe some of the problems caused by tourist in an MEDC?
And how it has been managed (9marks)
The Lake District is England’s largest nation park, which is situated in the north west of England stretching a massive 34 miles wide and the area of 885square miles. The Lake District was formed in the ice age; 15,000 years ago, that has left us with an area of outstanding beauty. There are 18 main water sources but only Bassenthwaite Lake is the only lake the rest are Meres or waters.
The major attractions in the Lake District are:
Hill walking
Rock climbing
Water sport
Biking
Shopping
William Wordsworth
Beatrice potter
Alfred Wainwright
Site seeing
Hill walking and rock climbing is so popular due to the challengers such as Scafell standing at a height 3,209 feet (973meters) the highest mountain in England. George and Ashley Abraham formed the rock-climbing club of England in 1906-1907 climbing peaks such as napes needles on great gable.
Many foreign visitors are drawn to the area due to the cultural history and great works of literature by the likes of William Wordsworth.
Late Victorians quickly discovered the beauty of the Lake District, the rich and famous holidayed around towns of Keswick and Bowness on Windermere this prompted early conversationalist like john Ruskin, Miss Octavia Hill and Sir Robert Hunter to form the nation trust.
The nation trust was formed in the 1895, but it was not until 1943 when the children’s book writer Beatrice Potter left 14 farms and 4000 acres of land to the trust and therefore safeguarded the future for the landscape, as we know today.
Today some of the issues such as footpath erosion and over crowding are still a threat to the landscape, you can see this when you walk up Cat-bells. Many years ago only a hand full of people had ventured there but now a days 100’s of people walk up there every week resent TV programmes like ‘Wainwright’s walks’ with Julia Bradbury and ‘Mountain’ by Griff-Rhys – Jones have made the lake District more popular than ever. As once the foot paths was only 1 meter wide they are now 4 or 5 meters wide because over the years people have walk upon the hills in large numbers of groups eroding away the footpaths leaving snake like patterns up on the side of the hills. As people have got lazier people have started to make up quicker and easier ways of getting to the top by either cutting corners or climbing over walls this is a massive issue for the farmers as they are the ones that have to pay for the walls to be re-built and grass to be re-grown.
The sheer volume of traffic to the Lake District has caused a major problem to the local residents. Schemes are in place to use ‘park and ride’ this allows day trippers and holiday makers to park there cars in a local church or school car parks than a mini bus picks them up getting them straight into the town centre. This is designed to leave car parks free for local residents, solving one part of the over crowding problem.
Another way this can be solved is by raising the price of the car parking in the most popular areas, this helps, as people will stop going in the car and start going on the bus, as it is cheaper and easier to get to the town centre.
Unfortunately, these schemes have a limited effect.
At this moment, local residents and the local council are involved in finding better ways of getting into the main centre of Windermere because round that area at certain times of the day it can become extremely busy and congested.
Mr Farron a local resident believes that the best solution would be to place a big roundabout on the A591 by the Windermere hotel that leads into Bowness-on-Windermere. This should help by keeping the traffic moving at all time stopping congestion.
Shops and places to eat and drink play a role in causing problems in the Lake District. Over 12 million people are attracted to the area each year, this adds to the problem of having to provide places to eat, drink and sleep. The only way you can do this is by converting old houses into shops or restaurants and cafes as people want to sample old traditional food from the area.
Over crowing is not just limited to road but it also applies to waterways such as Windermere. Over resent years, speeds restrictions have been put in places to safe guard the environment and limit the number of motor craft on the water. Before the speed limit imposed, motor boats and jets skis were seen to be damaging the banks with large amounts of wake wash. This also had a damaging effect on the wildlife.
It can be seen since the speed limit has been enforced a reduction in number of motor craft and a total ban of jet skis. In addition, if you break the rules you will have to pay a fine of up to £1000 or go to court.
Many old people go to the lakes just to see the seperluar scerney that the lake district has to offer. One of the main prolems of this is that most of the impersive scenary can oly be accessed by lakeland lanes. There for it can cause delays as to raods are to narrow for two cars to pass that the same time so you have to wait until the other car has passed so you can carrie on. In some sircomstances accident may happen and also cause delays.
(Windermere is not a lake it is a mere)
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