Last updated at 13:39, Monday, 19 July 2010

ONE of Britain’s best loved botanists paid a visit to South Cumbria at the weekend.

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Professor David Bellamy visited Lakeland Leisure Caravan Park in Flookburgh on Saturday as part of the Haven holiday parks’ Big Green Weekend.

Prof Bellamy, famed for appearing in more than 400 TV programmes, is the figurehead behind the David Bellamy conservation award.

The award promotes green energy and conservation work in more than 1,000 caravan parks across the UK.

Prof Bellamy said the David Bellamy Awards were set up as a result of his becoming disillusioned with television.

He said: “When I was big on television I used to get very fed up of talking to the people who knew all the things, so I went to a caravan park in Wales and I talked to the people – I took the people to the beach and they loved it.

“About 15 years ago they set up the David Bellamy awards and we now have about 1,000 parks who take part and they are audited every year to see how good they are, and more and more parks are plugging in to this, one day they are all going to be gold.

“It’s a green weekend at Lakeland, it has won a gold caravan park award. With the bay just over there, what a place.

“Wherever I go in the world, I find people who are fed up that the values their parents and grandparents took for granted are going so they are doing something about it.

“Young people should get out into the countryside, this is a wonderful haven for them.”

Prof Bellamy took part in a guided nature walk around the site before visitors enjoyed stalls from local producers and a barbecue serving up local delicacies.

Adele Lindsay co-ordinated Prof Bellamy’s visit to the Lakeland site and said the event aimed to highlight environmental issues and encourage people to support local businesses.

She said: “The event is to encourage people to help the environment and use local produce.”

Dave Garnett, site manager, said it was a great honour to have Prof Bellamy on site.

He said: “This is what it’s all about, it’s an honour to have David here.

Mr Garnett said the site’s Gold David Bellamy Award is reflected by his customers’ green attitudes.

He said: “Recycling is very important to all our customers – we often get comments about the lack of bottle banks, but we pay for our waste to be bulk collected and then sorted for recycling.

“It’s all based on David’s ideas.”

First published at 13:01, Monday, 19 July 2010
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk