Pah - go to the pembroke coast and (outside school holidays) walk on your own private beach.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Better still go to Scotland - better moutains, better scenery & you can have a dozen or so munroes to yourself on a weekday.
Lake district rapidly becoming a theme park for the downsizers and second homers.
Might have to put up with them gloating about the rugby though!
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Caithness and Sutherland the most beautiful place on earth after the Yorkshire dales of course.
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Caithness and Sutherland the most beautiful place on earth a . . .
And the roads can be pretty empty too. I drove about 60 miles in Sutherland on good roads (some single track, some dual track) a couple of years ago without meeting a single vehicle. It wasn't the dead of winter or the middle of the night either - a pleasant spring evening if I remember rightly.
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I have attached below a link to the National Trust page regarding discussion at their AGM on parking charges.It seems the issue will not go away and non members will increasingly be charged for parking and they are looking to charge some members in the future.
tinyurl.com/pc5mw
As SWMBO and myself are lifetime members at a cost of over £1,000, I look forward to the first time someone tries to charge me for parking at one of their sites.
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h, thanks for that link makes interesting reading.
I love the way that all green issues are resolved includes extracting more and more money from the punters. From the govt to the NT it seems the only idea they have has the "unfortunate" side effect of filling their coffers.
Nice.
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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I love the way that all green issues are resolved includes extracting more and more money from the punters. From the govt to the NT it seems the only idea they have has the "unfortunate" side effect of filling their coffers.
In a market economy, using "price signals" to discourage particular activities doesn't seem to me to be an illogical way of doing things. Increase the cost of doing the undesirable thing, and in theory some people then switch to alternatives.
Unfortunately, free market theories don't always work in paractice. Have you got any better ideas on how to resolve the problem of congestion around the lakes?
(Not being sarky, just wondering if theres seems a better way).
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"Using 'price signals' to discourage particular activities doesn't seem to me to be an illogical way of doing things. Increase the cost of doing the undesirable thing, and in theory some people then switch to alternatives"
Where people's cars are involved, they hardly ever do switch, but just whinge about extortion. E.g. adding 5p/litre tax to fuel (but of course this hurts international haulage firms).
"Unfortunately, free market theories don't always work in practice. Have you got any better ideas on how to resolve the problem of congestion around the lakes?"
If more cars come to an area than it can reasonably absorb, the only possible solution is something like Park and Ride. It's easy to say that a National Park should be Open to All, but it can't be when they bring their cars as well.
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"Have you got any better ideas on how to resolve the problem of congestion around the lakes?"
Now this is radical:
Frequent, Reliable, well priced, integrated public transport system.
Thats not a "twice a day, cancelled on wet sundays, sorry no dogs sir" system BTW
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"Now this is radical: Frequent, Reliable, well priced, integrated public transport system"
Come on, RF - you know that is pie in the sky. We used to have a Fairly Frequent, Reasonably Reliable, Acceptably Priced, (perhaps Poorly Integrated) system, but as soon as cars became affordable most people switched over, and realised they could make new, otherwise difficult or impossible journeys. Then some more decided to live further from work than they felt like riding their bike. Any F R W-P I S would have to be Very Cheap to persuade many people of the joys of waiting at bus stops in the rain, tolerating Tube trains, etc.etc. - and simply uneconomic unless 90% subsidised. It won't happen.
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A-T
Radical thought No.2
How's about taking the extra money from these "green initiatives" and ploughing even a little bit of it into public transport? I seem to recall some fat fighty bloke in '97/'98 telling me there were great plans for public transport including super buses, integrated transport systems and better service for all.
A decade on and what have we got? £160 day return from Leeds to London on the train. Thanks. I don't want to, but haven't got much choice but to take the car.
There's too many cars for the roads we've got. Not enough spaces. Poorly funded councils relying on parking and especially parking fine revenue to pay for local services with a budget that is guaranteed to drop by 2.5% per year, year on year.
There needs to be some radical thinking from someone high enough up to make a difference, and by radical I don't mean revenue. It's broken and with the current administration, there doesn't seem to be any indication of how it's going to get better.
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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Cit - "There's too many cars for the roads we've got. Not enough spaces. Poorly funded councils relying on parking and especially parking fine revenue to pay for local services with a budget that is guaranteed to drop by 2.5% per year, year on year.
There needs to be some radical thinking from someone high enough up to make a difference, and by radical I don't mean revenue. It's broken and with the current administration, there doesn't seem to be any indication of how it's going to get better"
You're absolutely right, the fundamental problem is the conflict between population, affluence and available space. Until the radical thinking comes from the men/women in the street, it doesn't look as if it can be imposed by politicians. So far, most people seem prepared to keep adding their tiny bit to the congestion.
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A-T - I think we're not far off each other's views really. I love it when I can leave the car at home, but public transport doesn't allow me to do this for all the reasons TVM implicitly indicated/Yes, perhaps if more people used public transport there would be more funding and eventually a better service. But I still think £160 from Leeds to London is an outrage and does nothing but push people back into their cars.- It's a similar story with local trains. From home to Leeds on the train is £3 return, but to train to Manchester which is closer it costs five times as much. Net result is me taking the car for trips to Manchester when I'd _much_ prefer to take the train but the extra cost makes it a silly choice.
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Behaviour at ground level needs to change but the catalyst (and strategy) must surely come from government.
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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TVM>>
Frequent, Reliable, well priced, integrated public transport system.
Exactly what I was thinking.
Lee -- Without bills, magazines and junk mail, there is no mail
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Yup never keen on the lake district anyway although my ex was.
Prefer the other coast, however went to Devon last year in Sept. found loads of rip-offs such as £ 6 parking for the day in Paignton & high charges everywhere else.
It's fairly obvious that in a free market economy I'll vote with my feet and holiday abroad & leave all of the local councils whining & muttering. Even in city centres in france I rarely pay high charges, get better weather & service so no competition.
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