Last updated 05:20, Friday, 09 May 2008

THE prospect of Talkin Tarn losing its boats is unthinkable to anyone who knows and loves Brampton’s country park.

But the threat of loss is a real one, as franchise holder Peter Scott struggles to counter the effects of months of bad weather, a consequent fall in custom and high operational costs.

Poor trade has forced Mr Scott to appeal to Carlisle City Council, Brampton Parish Council and local businesses to help secure a future for the boats – as much a part of the beauty spot as the Tarn itself.

He makes a valid point in stating: “When people think of the Tarn they think of the boats.”

But merely thinking of the advantages of any service held in deep affection never paid any of the bills accrued by its provision.

There’s truth in the adage: “Use it or lose it.”

Fondness for a long established amenity of known benefit to an enduringly popular idyll is not enough to retain it.

Boating at Talkin Tarn is without doubt a tourist attraction with pleasing, particular Cumbrian character – a facility which is undersold, underused and, it would now seem, probably under-valued.

Perhaps the country park and all it offers to visitors and locals suffers a collective complacency assuming it will always be there, come hell, high water or under investment. The reality is that it won’t.

Any attraction drawing visitors spills over its benefits into the local community.

Tourists travelling from farther afield bring added prosperity to the wider community.

When their importance is underestimated or neglected, an area heavily reliant on the tourist pound can expect to suffer.

Securing Talkin Tarn Country Park as a continuing attraction needs an eye to the bigger picture of wider appeal and of continuing home-grown support from locals, councils, sympathetic sponsorship, promotion and the enthusiastic use that turns a picture postcard landscape into a thriving, functioning amenity.