General Election candidates standing in the Westmorland & Lonsdale constituency faced questions from an audience at a hustings held in the Lake District.
The Hustings for Cumbria’s Landscapes was organised by charity Friends of the Lake District and took place at Ambleside Parish Centre yesterday, Monday, June 24.
All candidates who had parties sitting in the last Parliament were invited to the event. Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats), Phil Clayton (Green Party) and Pippa Smith (Labour) took questions from the audience.
Matty Jackman (Conservative) and James Townley (Reform UK) were unable to attend but sent statements, which were distributed to those in attendance.
The event was chaired by the BBC’s Caz Graham, best known for presenting on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme.
Candidates debated issues including sewage in Windermere, climate change, nature-friendly farming, public transport, housing and hill farming culture.
Matt Staniek, founder of campaign group Save Windermere, asked one of the first questions of the night. He said: “What will you do to stop sewage entering Windermere?”
There was consensus among the three candidates for stronger, and more rigorously applied, regulations on water companies and better infrastructure.
There was also a question which related to Friends of the Lake District’s recent decision to seek a judicial review of the planning approval for a major new tourist attraction at Elterwater Quarry.
Mr Farron and Mr Clayton said they strongly opposed the new attraction. Mr Clayton said it was baffling that the Lake District National Park had passed the project and said he absolutely supported Friends of the Lake District’s legal challenge against the decision. Mr Farron labelled the plans for the attraction at the quarry daft.
Ms Smith called for a balance to be struck between commercial interests, tourism and the needs of nature, the environment and local communities in thenational park.
She said she would want to work with organisations like Friends of the Lake District, the Lake District National Park Authority and Zip World to understand the situation around the Elterwater development.
Chief executive of Friends of the Lake District, Michael Hill, said: “As a landscape charity created 90 years ago to protect and enhance the Lake District, we have no political affiliations, but we strongly believe that landscape matters.
“It was heartening to hear the candidates on stage tonight in broad agreement about the challenges facing Cumbrian landscapes.
“We hope that politicians in the next parliament step up and do something about these issues, which is why we’ve launched our own Manifesto for Cumbria’s Landscapes. This calls on the new government to commit to delivering on six demands covering areas such as water, local housing, nature friendly farming and the impact of tourism.”
