The politics of the environment, and noisy sports: two totally different outcomes in the Lake District National Park for powerboating and off-road motoring

Promoting recreation in the National Parks of England and Wales has emphasised quiet forms since their formation. Elson and colleagues for the Sports Council in 1986 drew attention to the organisational and image problems of motorised sports, and after the Edwards committee's review of National Parks (NPs) in 1991 attitudes of some NP Authorities to motorised sports have hardened. Taking a 20-year perspective, the paper describes the background to powerboating and off-road motoring and the policy attitudes of the English NPAs in particular to off-road motoring and powerboating, Through the Land Access and Recreation Association the former have managed, with some opposition, to become part of the policy network, and persuaded the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) to adopt a Hierarchy of Trail Route and a management system. At the same time, waterski and powerboat interests were very much out-siders, and against a phalanx of environmental opposition were effectively banned from Lake Windermere by a new Labour government, through the mechanism of a 10 mph speed limit. Both schemes may become a precedent for other NPs with some indications from Loch Lomond. The paper explores why these outcomes were so different, and the relationship between national policy and the local policy network. It also examines the consequences and impacts five or more years since the speed limit and Trails solutions