A SHORT break last week took me to the Lake District. I was astonished to discover that discussions are still going on about a plan that had been put forward shortly before my last visit in April. It is for a zip wire from the summit of Fleetwith Pike, a prominent peak near Buttermere, to a former slate mine, now a “mountain adventure”

site, at Honister Pass.

The application was supposed to be decided this month, but the national park authority has put it back for more consideration.

The suspicion grows that it is minded to approve the preposterous scheme, alien to the concept of a national park as a place where people can find mental, physical, and, yes, spiritual refreshment in a beautiful and inspiring landscape.

What chance of that with what would be Britain’s longest zip wire, about 1,000 feet, in operation? Walkers reaching the 2,126ft summit would find an excited queue of youngsters whose yells and screams would echo round the fells as they zipped down. The noisy spectacle would spoil the ascent for other walkers.

The zip wire is essentially a theme park attraction, which it should have taken the national park authority no longer to throw out than the time needed to open and read the letter.

Incredibly, the legendary Alfred Wainwright, Lakeland-lover supreme, has been enlisted (posthumously) to support the plan.

In a TV programme he described the then deserted Honister mine as “a sad place”.

The suggestion that he would have been gladdened by the sight and sound of a fun ride akin to a big dipper high in the fells is a misjudgement as grotesque as the zip wire plan itself. In the opening pages of his famous Lakeland guides – which he described as “a love letter” – he specified some of the sights and sounds that, for him, made up “the rare quality and magical atmosphere of Lakeland… the dawn chorus of birdsong… the silence of lonely hills… murmuring streams… silver cascades dancing and leaping… unexpected glimpses of valleys dappled in sunlight… curling smoke from the chimneys of the farm down below… glittering moonlight on placid waters… stars above dark peaks”.

Above all a man of summits, Wainwright also listed “the supreme moment when the top cairn comes into sight at last, only minutes away, after the long climb”. Is it conceivable he might have added: “Not forgetting a long queue of people waiting to whoop and holler their way down on a spectacular zip wire?”

The national park authority should do what it is meant to do – defend the landscape with might and main for the quiet, non-intrusive recreation sought by most visitors.

Where thrills can be provided only at cost to Lakeland’s precious atmosphere, somewhere else should be found for them.

FORGET the baffling complexities of Labour’s leadership ballot. Most striking to me is that, in opposition, Labour has spent four months selecting a leader. In government, it simply shooed in a new leader and Prime Minister. Suppose someone had opposed Gordon Brown. Would government have been virtually suspended for four months while the party conducted the farrago we have just witnessed?

CHEERLEADING is now a “sport” in 37 per cent of our schools. But, with traditional games declining, what are they cheering?