Barrow and Furness MP Michelle Scrogham has called a planned 233-lodge holiday resort in South Cumbria disastrous for the area.
Plans for the resort at Roanhead, has attracted huge criticism and a protest group, Save Roanhead, was set up against the proposals.
The area surrounding the site of the holiday resort includes protected habitats, like important breeding grounds for the rare Natterjack toad.
Landscape conservation charity Friends of the Lake District is part of a coalition of nature and landscape charities working together to object to the threat to the internationally significant sites.
It stands alongside the National Trust, which looks after Sandscale Hawes nature reserve, the Woodland Trust, the RSPB, the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, Cumbria Wildlife Trust and Cumbria GeoConservation.
The coalition has been working closely with Save Roanhead.
Mrs Scrogham said: “The proposed development at Roanhead would be disastrous, causing irreversible damage to this special place.
“It is not often that such a broad range of groups unite with local people to oppose a planning application in this way.
“This coalition of respected organisations have joined with residents because of the ecological importance of Roanhead and the threat that these plans would pose to endangered wildlife, coastal erosion, flood risk, and land instability.
“Roanhead is a place of international ecological importance and at the same time hugely valued by local people who have enjoyed and looked after this land for generations. We must ensure that it is protected to be enjoyed by future generations in the same way.”
The proposed site lies immediately next to multiple protected sites of international importance for nature: The Duddon Estuary Site of Special Scientific Interest; Duddon Estuary Ramsar Site; Morecambe Bay Special Area of Conservation; and the Morecambe Bay and Duddon Estuary Special Protection Area.
The site would also border an area of ancient woodland and Sandscale Haws, a National Nature Reserve and Local Geological Site, as well as Roanhead Mines County Wildlife Site, all of which are under threat from the proposal.
Lorayne Wall, head of planning and policy at Friends of the Lake District, said: “Friends of the Lake District stands firm alongside the many local residents and environmental organisations that have also objected to plans for this resort and shares their deep concerns about the many impacts this proposal will have.
“In addition to harm to internationally important biodiversity, a development of the type and scale proposed will significantly compromise the local landscape, and local people’s enjoyment of it.”
Friends of the Lake District have supported the campaign group Save Roanhead since it began in early 2023.
Friends of the Lake District has also submitted responses to Westmorland and Furness Council regarding an additional tourism development proposed on a nearby site for 20 lodges, 22 caravan/motorhome pitches and other buildings by a separate developer.
The date the applications will be determined by the council has not yet been confirmed.
