Lake District National Park denies reports they are 'actively considering' a ban on cars

The Chief Executive of the Lake District National Park has denied media reports that it is "actively considering" closing some of the most popular valleys to cars during the peak tourist season. 

Richard Leafe says there could be more park and ride schemes following succcessful trials in Wasdale and Buttermere this summer but there are no plans to ban cars. He added though that he couldn't entirely rule it out in the future

Speaking to ITV News, he said, "what we're trying to do is make sure we can manage the demand."

The Covid lockdown and the rise of the staycation saw a huge number of tourists descend upon the Lakes this summer, causing problems as vehicles spilled out of car parks and parked on the verge.

Mr Leafe said, "We experienced quite a few issues with having so many cars in the national park, and over the course of the summer we've been attempting to manage that with some different solutions to what we've done in the past."

The National Park say they want to encourage people to travel to the Lakes by public transport, or if they have to come by car to leave it in one location and use bikes or get around on foot.

Some of this year's measures to reduce traffic included putting on buses to transport people into the lakes. Richard Leafe said they had been pleased with how successful the scheme has been; "I'm pleased to say people responded very well to it. And they did actually get out of their cars and take the shuttle buses. And we saw noticeably less pressure on some of the remote tourist hotspots.

"I think when people are on holiday in the national part they're quite keen to get out of their car. They spend a lot of time in it from day to day in their normal lives. We've no plans to close any valley roads in the foreseeable future, but we are talking to communities about ways to limit access in certain circumstances."