About Lake District National Park

landscape by restricting unwelcome change by industry or commerce. Most of the land in the Park is in private ownership. The National Trust owns about a quarter of the total area (including some lakes and land of significant landscape value), United Utilities owns eight per cent and 3.9% belongs to the Lake District National Park Authority. The National Park Authority is based at offices in Kendal. It runs a visitor centre on Windermere at a former country house called Brockhole, Coniston Boating Centre and Information Centres.

In common with all other National Parks in England, there is no restriction on entry to, or movement within the park along public routes, but access to cultivated land is usually restricted to public footpaths, bridleways and byways. Much of the uncultivated land has statutory open access rights - which cover around 50% of the Park.

The lakes and mountains combine to form impressive scenery. Farmland and settlement add aesthetic value to the natural scenery with an ecology modified by human influence for millennia and including important wildlife habitats. The Lake District has failed to be approved as a natural World Heritage Site, because of human activities, such as commercial forestry, which have adversely impacted the park's assessment. Another bid is being prepared for World Heritage Status, this time in the category of cultural landscape