THE head of the authority responsible for the Lake District has become the focus of angry protests from residents and campaigners over accusations that he is helping turn the World Heritage site into a “theme park”.

Richard Leafe, the park authority’s long-standing chief executive, told Sky News that the rugged Lake District landscape excludes too many people and must change to attract a more diverse mix of visitors.

“We need to be able to sell the national park to everybody in Britain, all society, and it’s important that it doesn’t just become exclusive to one single use group,” he said.

But two prominent Lakes residents have said Mr Leafe’s comments mask a desire to turn the park into the “adventure capital of England”.

One, county councillor Tony Lywood, told The Cumberland News: “Mr Leafe seemingly wants to adjust the nature of the Lake District to diversify and attract a younger demographic, more from ethnic minorities and to encourage visitors with disability. These are all excellent aims and how can anyone disagree with them?

“However, in terms of actual translated policy this means a new four-mile strip of urban Tarmac on the rural path from Keswick to Threlkeld, large numbers of off-road 4x4s in Little Langdale, the consideration of numerous zip wires across Thirlmere, driverless electric pods and the possibility of a gondola system up to Whinlatter Forest Centre.”

“Let us be quite clear that Mr Leafe may wish to introduce changes in the guise of promoting diversity of access, but the practical application of this policy ends up with increased commercial development and all the issues that go along with that,” said Mr Lywood.

“My worry is that the Lake District National Park may move toward becoming the Lake District Theme Park and that ‘cultural and demographic diversity’ is merely a smokescreen to a green light on a development and an adventure gold rush on what is a Unesco world heritage site. If this is so, then come out and say it rather than wrap it up in a cloak of ethnicity, age and disability.”

Former cabinet minister Lord Clark of Windermere said that if Mr Leafe was really interested in increased accessibility to the Park then fighting for more investment into public transport might be a place to start.

Lord Clark – who as David Clark served in Tony Blair’s first government – said: “I disagree fundamentally with Richard Leafe. I did head the campaign for World Heritage Site Status for I believe it fundamentally guarantees the protection of the beauty of the Lake District, often these days against the National Park leadership.

“My contention is that Richard Leafe confuses tourism with the objectives of the National Park. A couple of facts: there are only a little more than 40,000 residents to service almost 20 million visitors a year. Yet it is those residents who protect the nature and fabric of the National Park, year in year out. However most of the residents would agree that they are largely ignored by the NPA leadership.

“We residents want to share the beauty of our place of residence with the visitors but we are not happy when the tourist industry is allowed to ride roughshod over the long-term interests of the district. Too much tourism is purely about making money, with much of the profits then being spirited out of the area.”