A LAKE District National Park response to a Government review looks set to be submitted with less than a week to go before the deadline.

A consultation on the future of national parks closes on December 18 with the clock ticking for responses from park authorities.

The Lake District National Park Authority’s (LDNPA) draft two-page response went before members for approval this week, after a previous meeting at the Glaramara centre, Keswick.

But some members remained unconvinced about the park’s final response.

A number said it needed to be more “explicit,” but others said it was “better” than that tabled by other organisations.

Richard Leafe, chief executive of the LDNPA, told the meeting: “I wouldn’t envisage us making any substantial changes to the draft at this point but that said, I welcome any further comments you may have.”

The review will consider whether national parks and AONBs “meet the needs of the 21st century” and will report back in 2019 to mark the 70th anniversary of national park legislation.

Park member Vivienne Rees, of Grasmere, said she remained “worried” about the tension between conservation and commercialisation in the Lakes.

Mrs Rees said: “I would always maintain the Sandford principle – that the landscape must come first. I think there have been occasions where we have not sufficiently stressed that.

“Money and fundraising tend to obsess people. Personally, I am obsessed with the landscape.”

Prominent park authority member Bill Jefferson OBE, of Silloth, said “playing the landscape card” did not always work.

Mr Jefferson, a retired diplomat, said: “Devaluing the landscape card does nobody any favours.

“If you are always going into your back pocket for an ace, you might find you don’t even have a picture card when you really need it. It’s very tempting and very easy to treat it as though the landscape trumps all, but it doesn’t.”

Another park member, Neil Cumberlidge, said the response to the review by National Parks England was “insipid”.

He said: “I think ours is a lot better and sharper.”

Mr Leafe said the review was likely to consider how national parks were run, including their governance arrangements and how many members they had.

Councillor Alan Barry, of Workington, said he feared this was a step towards introducing a park commissioner, in the same way that police authorities were scrapped to make way for crime commissioners.

“I hope that isn’t the case,” he said.

The review panel is led by writer Julian Glover OBE, a former special advisor to David Cameron.