Last updated 08:15, Friday, 04 July 2008

THIS WEEK I have had to go to Keswick to do some interviews. It was not easy.

Now, I love Keswick. There are great shops and lovely places to eat, but at this time of year it has one great drawback - tourists.

I know tourists are vital to the economy, etc etc, but they do ruin the place for locals.

If they are not leaping off Bank Street corner in front of you like lemmings off a cliff, they are taking up all the car parking spaces and driving in front of you at 20 mph as they admire the views.

Not long ago I witnessed an angry confrontation in the Bell Close car park between a local woman and a tourist who were vying for a space.

The woman claimed that she used the car park several times a week and needed to do so to do her shopping, visit the doctor etc. The visitor countered that, without the money brought in by tourists, she wouldn’t have a job to enable her to do any shopping. She countered that she paid her council tax to Allerdale council and therefore should have priority and then he played what he obviously thought was his trump card.

“I”, he said proudly, “am a member of the Friends of the Lake District.”

Daft move. She told him what she though of that organisation, got into her car and reversed into the disputed space.

I was on her side. Most of the Friends are friendly from the south and seem to have a down on anything that will make life easier for us natives. They will now write in from their second homes in Borrowdale to tell us that that is not the case.

Some of us will recall that they were dead against the development of the A66 from Penrith to Workington. They brought witnesses to tell the public inquiry how the new road would spoil their views while they were fell walking after a hard week in the City. Fortunately for those of us who live here and for who can remember when a trip to Keswick meant a tortuous journey via what are now back roads at Bridgefoot, Brigham and Embleton, they lost.

Anyone want to petition Allerdale for a car park for the use of borough residents only?