A North Lakeland naturalist is heading up a campaign to replace a public hide on Bassenthwaite which was washed away during the 2015 floods.
Keen birdwatcher John Miles says that there are a number of wildlife organisations prepared to stump up cash to reinstate the hide but needs the Lake District National Park Authority to commit and grant planning permission.
But the national park says that although a replacement hide is in its management plan any new structure at the location, on the south-west shore of the lake, will require permissions and consents and would need to be disabled friendly and flood resilient.
But Mr Miles said making the hide disabled friendly would bump up the estimated £10,000 price to replace the hide three-fold. He said that the priority was to get the hide, which used to hold 10 people, up and running in the first place and then get the funds to create a disabled access.
“I am sure funds can be found, especially from the birding community,” said Mr Miles, who writes for two ornithological magazines and was a warden at Geltsdale for nine years. “All it needs is the green light from the national park and then funds will flow in.”
Mr Miles, who lives at Geltsdale, said that he has the support of Keswick Natural History Society and the RSPB members’ group in Cockermouth. He says that the hide used to be a popular viewing point to see the lake’s ospreys, without having to go to the visitor centre at Dodds Wood, and otters were regularly seen there along with golden-eye, tufted ducks and grebes.
“There are some good shallow areas which are suitable for dabbling ducks,” said Mr Miles. “We have had one or two rare ducks seen. The south end of Bassenthwaite Lake is the Leighton Moss of the national park, drawing in a wide variety of birds.”
Mr Miles has been fighting for 32 months to get a new hide and says that a similar push in Somerset resulted in a successful crowd funding campaign to get a new hide.
He has written to the national park’s area ranger, Cath Johnson, who said in response: “I can reassure you that we are in the process of producing a new management plan for the national nature reserve – the bird hide is included.
“I do not think it is a good idea to raise funds in advance of having a design and a cost estimate. Once we have these and the necessary permissions I would be more than happy to work with local communities to look at fundraising opportunities. We also want to explore designs that are accessible to all and more flood resilient.”
Mr Miles added: “Certainly one of the drawbacks is that the park wants to have a hide with disabled access. This adds considerable cost to the scheme not just for the type of hide but actually getting to the hide.
“The old hide had no disabled access. Of course I am not against disabled access, but the hide could be replaced without it and when the park has their funds, added to the access and to the hide.”
