Plans for a museum and visitors’ centre at the former RNAD depot in West Cumbria have been approved.
Derwent Forest Developments Consortium Ltd put forward proposals for the venue on the 1,050-acre site at Broughton Moor, known locally as the dump.
Allerdale councillors met to discuss the plans after carrying out a visit to see the site.
The visitors’ centre and museum will chart the history of the giant former NATO and Royal Navy arms dump.
Allerdale council’s approval follows the recent rejection of the company’s application for new homes and community facilities, a link to the C2C cycleway and the removal of miles of military fencing to open up the site for public use.
Nigel Catterson, chairman of the development company, said: “We’re delighted with this consent, which will bring new visitors to an area rich in heritage and physical assets.”
The visitors’ centre will serve the 140-mile C2C cycle route where it is hoped to enter the Derwent Forest site, supporting an improved 2.5km multi-user trail with facilities for cyclists, walkers and wheelchair users. It will also include the first new bridleway in Cumbria for many years.
Mr Catterson added: “Our wider masterplan proposals have always been about opening up the site to beneficial uses like this, with enabling development such as much-needed homes and employment space. We continue to review those plans in the light of constructive feedback from various stakeholders, including the council’s development panel.
“Following favourable feedback, we are working with our professional team as to how we revert with a revised application.”
This week’s approval includes the refurbishment of the original Seaton Road gate house to provide a supervised access point to the site, with a new-build two-storey property providing space for a café and museum charting the history of the RNAD Broughton Moor, from its early days as a colliery onwards to one of the country’s largest and most secret arms dumps.
There will also be car parking for 37 vehicles and a bay for a visiting coach. The scheme will include a new ‘trail-head’ facility for cyclists.
The arms depot was opened in 1939 on the site of Buckhill Colliery (1873-1932). In 1944 the site was expanded from 800 to 1,050 acres.
The depot was used by the Ministry of Defence until 1963 before being leased to the West German government.
From 1977 it was used by the US Navy for the storage of armaments for its North Atlantic Squadron. From 1981 Broughton Moor was formally adopted as a NATO storage site.
The site was decommissioned at the end of the Cold War, finally closing on December 31 1992. More than 130 magazine buildings remain on site.
Amongst the facilities that remain proposed by the development consortium for the first phase of the project were:
- A new village green
- A 2.5km path and cycle way linked to the coast-to-coast route and National Route 71
- 15,000 new trees in a new 13-acre woodland to promote carbon capture
- A 1km woodland walk
- Watercourse improvements to the historic Flammiggs Gill
- A new multi-purpose visitor centre
- A new purpose-built early-years facility at the nearby Broughton Academy
