MANY of your readers will perhaps know that members of the tourist industry in Cumbria have joined together in a programme to help overcome the appalling after-effects of the foot-and-mouth disaster.

We have launched this programme to tell the world that the area is very much open for business. A unique part of our campaign is to appoint ambassadors throughout the United Kingdom who share the names of famous people from our past - like Wordsworth, Ruskin, Tennyson, Keats and Coleridge.

Many have no known links with the original great names but they all share a love of Cumbria and the Lake District and a desire to help. We know from our database that there are many lake lovers in your area and would like to hear from any readers who feel they might wish to join our list of ambassadors representing us in your region.

Each successful nomination receives a certificate of appointment and a voucher for £100 to be spent on their next visit to Cumbria.

Among the new names we are looking for are: Coleridge, De Quincy, Lamb, Southey, Arnold, Keats, Tennyson, Carlyle, Bronte, Dickens, Wilberforce, Washington, Clarkson, Cromwell, Donal (or Dunmail), Emerson, Gilpin, North, Campbell, Romney, Whitelaw, Bonington, Graves, Voisey, Clifford, Ransome, Rawnsley, Dalton, Ritson, Lowther, Buttermere, Downing, Boswell, Fox, Laurel, Ferrier, Franklin, Wilson, Fiennes, Plimsoll, Hazlitt and Constable.

Readers should write to me at the address below saying in less than 50 words why they feel they should be considered as a cultural ambassador for Cumbria and the Lake District.

CHARLES GARSIDE,

Commercial Members Committee,

c/o The Cumbria Tourist Board,

Holly Road, Windermere, Cumbria LA 23 2AQ