By Cindi John BBC News community affairs reporter

National parks are under pressure to attract a wider range of visitors

The furore caused by the Lake District National Park Authority's attempt to attract under-represented groups has highlighted the issue of unequal access to the countryside.

Ethnic minorities make up 8% of the UK population but in 2002/3, figures show, they represented just 1% of day visitors to the countryside and only 3% of those who visited a national park.

Disabled visitors - who make up around one fifth of the total working age population - are under-represented too with only 1% spending a day in the countryside in 2002/3.

Poorer families are also largely absent as visitors to the countryside. Research by rural watchdog, the Countryside Agency, in 2003 concluded "there appear to be significant constraints affecting social grades D/E in terms of health and personal circumstances (including lack of money)".

Last year Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Racial Equality described the absence of black and Asian faces from the countryside as a form of "passive apartheid".

Diversity review

Lack of physical accessibility is a key reason for disabled people's absence from countryside activities.

But the reasons for the lack of participation by ethnic minority groups is one that until recently has attracted little attention or research.

Preliminary findings from projects set up in response to the Rural White Paper suggest the trend for ethnic minority migrants to settle in urban areas is a prime factor.

However, it is only in recent times that the absence seems to have become an official cause for concern.

That access to green spaces is being so closely monitored, stems from a series of laws and government initiatives to combat discrimination and exclusion.

Black projects target green pastures

Possibly the most significant of these for the national parks was the Rural White Paper, published by the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs in 2000.

It committed the government to addressing issues of inequality in relation to access to the countryside and included an undertaking to set up a full diversity review of the current situation.

In addition, the Race Relations Amendment Act which came into force in April 2000 placed a duty on local authorities and other service providers to ensure discrimination did not take place in their service delivery.

National parks and other countryside-based organisations are also considered to be providing a service.

The coming into force of the Disability Discrimination Act last year also played a major role, says Will Dingli of the Disability Rights Commission.

"From the point of disabled people having rights to access and they need to have access to national parks just as they'd need to have access to any other service provision under part three of the Disability Discrimination Act," Mr Dingli says.

Research

Jacqui Stearn of the Countryside Agency is leading the diversity review set out in the Rural White paper.

"The national parks are well aware of the diversity review so that would be part of what's informing them," Ms Stearns says.

"The review of English national park authorities started in 2002 is the other driver. They were asked to look at the range of access opportunities they provide and we conducted research to look at the diversity of opportunities there are.

We would say that it doesn't actually cost a lot of money to make accessible services which currently exist Will Dingli, Disability Rights Commission

Ms Stearn says the way the Lake District situation has been reported is "unfortunate" as the national parks have been quietly been involved in initiatives to make them more accessible for some time.

Prominent among those initiatives has been the Mosaic project run jointly by the Black Environment Network and the Council of National Parks (CNP).

The three-year project which finished in 2004 aimed to encourage ethnic minorities to visit national parks by organising group visits from nearby urban areas.

A second project focusing on four national parks close to big multi-cultural populations is currently being planned.

'Politicised'

Kathy Moore of CNP says coverage of the proposal by the Lake District National Park Authority to cut free guided walks to fund projects to attract a wider range visitor was "heavily politicised".

"The Lake District is trying to provide a range of services for a variety of customers and we would like those services to appeal to as many different people as possible.

"What we've been trying to do within the Mosaic project is to try and extend the range of people that enjoy the parks and that's really been the focus of our work," Ms Moore said.

The Lake District National Park's conundrum on how to balance the books and extend its appeal has been solved - in the short-term at least - by a mystery donor.

The free guided walks, enjoyed mostly it is claimed by white, middle-class walkers, will not have to be sacrificed to fund projects to attract under-represented groups to the national park.

However, Will Dingli of the DRC says widening services doesn't have to be expensive.