TOUGH financial decisions are to be taken next week to prevent the Lake District National Park Authority from being swallowed up in a financial black hole.

The authority has confirmed it is in the midst of grappling with a critical cash crisis that could leave finance chiefs trying to plug a £900,000 deficit by 2007.

At a special LDNPA meeting on Monday (February 7) when the fate of its events programme will be decided members will be told the authority faces "difficult financial times" including a worst case scenario £873,000 cash shortfall for 2007/08.

And on Monday's agenda is a notice of motion from LDNPA member Ian Hall which calls on the authority to stop pursuing National Lottery funding for Brockhole and "actively pursue ways of disengaging from its involvement by way of leasing out or selling the property."

Mr Hall told the Gazette, "We are skint' and we were asked to come up with things to make savings, and this is my idea. We should look at Brockhole and ask if we are the right body to run this."

Yesterday LDNPA corporate finance director Kelly Powell said that despite facing a potential £739,000 shortfall this coming financial year, stripping budgets to their minimum and using reserves would create a balanced budget something she conceded would be much more difficult to achieve in coming years.

She said that, like other local authorities, the LDNPA was facing increasing costs including: increased employers' contributions into the pension scheme; inflation; general living costs; salaries and pay awards; maintenance charges for buildings and properties; and statutory commitments to deliver some services.

"Members will be in a strong position to make some hard financial decisions when they agree their three-year strategy on Monday," she said. "We will be spending the first part of the financial year 2005/6 looking at all possible ways to reduce our costs. We have already briefed our staff about this situation."

In the report to members she adds the authority will have to streamline its operations, generate real savings in delivering services and become more successful in attracting external income.

Minutes from an LDNPA meeting, part of which was not open to the public, on January 4 reveal that Ms Powell admitted Government funding had decreased due to further loss of the Planning Delivery Grant. The LDNPA lost £250,000 last year and is set to lose another £250,000 this year after it failed to hit Government planning processing targets.

At the meeting members will also decide whether to follow authority recomm-endations and scrap the LDNPA's 900-strong events programme, which it said attracted only the white middle class and middle aged, in a bid to attract more urban young, ethnic minorities and disabled people.

The Westmorland Gazette campaign Save The Walks has been pressing for the authority to rethink its recommendation. If members follow the advice the much-loved free guided walks would be scrapped along with map and compass days, Brockhole events and the authority would withdraw and disinvest from its information centres.

Members will also be asked to approve plans to cut staff costs from 65 per cent to 55 per cent of overall expenditure. Employee costs are predicted to hit £6,213,000 out of £10,211,000 total expenditure for 2005/06. They are also set to approve plans to invest in planning services, customer services and countryside management services which would encompass Countryside Rights of Way Act responsibilities.

l This week a report commissioned by the Countryside Agency Dem-and For Outdoor Rec-reation In England and The National Parks' found national parks were not doing enough to promote and enhance enjoyment.

The report's author, Lynn Crowe, said English national parks had not done enough to promote recreation in the past and had seen visitors as a problem. However, she said things were improving and she praised the LDNPA's dealings with 4x4s in its Hierarchy of Trails programme.