A leading Lake District landscape charity has welcomed the news that plans for a heritage adventure attraction at a quarry has been thrown out by the national park.
Burlington Stone, which owns Elterwater Quarry, wanted to create the attraction – including a cavern zip wire tour, heritage walks and a visitor centre, on part of its site in the Langdale Valley.
It said it would attract up to 50,000 visitors a year.
Its proposals attracted thousands of objections – including from Friends of the Lake District, which campaigned against it.
Friends of the Lake District planning officer Lorayne Wall said: “We’re very pleased that this application has been turned down – Langdale is simply the wrong place for a visitor attraction of this type.
“The narrow winding lanes around Elterwater just cannot cope with a large influx of cars, coaches and people, which will impact upon its character and tranquillity.”
Over 90,000 people had signed an online petition against the development, which previously included a ‘cavern coaster’ ride, subsequently removed from the planning application.
Despite being recommended for approval, when it was brought before members of the Lake District National Park’s development control committee yesterday, September 6, it was thrown out.
Members heard from two objectors as well as two representatives from Burlington Stone, part of the Holker Group.
Some members were not convinced that a travel plan provided by the firm was not sufficient.
The travel plan focused on the use of Brockhole as a park and ride car park and also people would sail and cycle to the attraction.
But in a report to the committee, officers said Brockhole was some distance from Elterwater and currently experiences capacity issues from its existing operations.
Members were not convinced that the travel plan was good enough and the benefits did not outweigh the harms of the increased number of private car travel.
