We now have well over 3,000 signatures on the petition, which was only started a few days ago. The strength of feeling that UU are riding roughshod over public rights of way is growing, as is the anger that Cumberland and the LDNP are allowing them to get away with it. I have been looking at the original Act of Parliament dated 1879 that granted Manchester Corporation the ability to build Thirlmere Reservoir.  That Act required the Corporation to construct the Western Road to serve as a public road for the benefit of locals and tourists.  And that the Corporation must “Make Good The Beauty Of The Landscape After The Engineering Works”. What happened in practice was the wholesale wanton destruction by Manchester Corporation of the native woods and forests all around the Thirlmere Valley . The indigenous oak, ash, birch and rowan trees were felled and replaced with fast growing conifers such as larch, spruce and fir, extending over more than two thousand acres. Local people objected to this destruction but were ignored by the arrogant and insensitive Corporation who were just as self serving then as arguably United Utilities are now. A cartoon appeared in the Manchester Evening Chronicle as late as 1911 showing Canon Rawnsley, the local Vicar of Crosthwaite, pleading with an axeman not to cut down more trees along the shore of Thirlmere. In 1985 the legality of this tree planting was challenged in the courts by Mrs Susan Johnson who argued that it was not part of the agreement made by Manchester Corporation in the 1879 Act. Mrs Johnson won her case and Manchester Corporation was required to cut down all the conifer trees along the eastern shores of Thirlmere Reservoir to open up the views to traffic on the A591 and clear a wide corridor of large trees to the east side of that road to prevent the tall conifers blowing down and blocking the A591 road.  I am still trying to establish why that same requirement was not enforced on the west side of the reservoir. Does anyone here know more about this ?