Elterwater Quarry recommended for approval to committee

More than 1,000 objections, as well as petition which garnered nearly 90,000 signatures, were submitted after applicant Burlington Stone unveiled proposals for a new tourism attraction at Elterwater Quarry.

Objectors claim it will turn the area into a ‘theme park’ while those in favour believe it will provide jobs and a boost to the tourism industry.

Lake District Park Authority planners will meet in Kendal on Wednesday to make a decision.

The saw shed in the existing quarry site would be transformed into a visitor centre, according to the plans (Image: Lake District National Park Authority)

The scheme proposes:

 • The introduction of a fixed line route connecting viewing platforms within a cavern, the ‘in-cavern explorer route’, using zip-wires to provide access to viewpoints and features of interest;

• Recladding the former saw sheds and use of part of the sheds to provide a larger visitor building;

• Alterations to an existing building to provide a second, smaller visitor building;

• The introduction of an outdoor heritage interpretation area;

• Car and coach parking and associated landscaping;

• The introduction of a route within the quarry to a viewpoint.

The developer wants to install viewing platforms in the cavern (Image: Lake District National Park Authority)

The developer states: "The proposed experience at Elterwater will provide a blend of heritage-based adventure through the caverns and offer a unique immersive experience within an underground mine that dates back to the middle of the 19th century."

There will be between 40 and 60 metres between each platform with a maximum 12m increase in height for any platform.

There is a maximum capacity of 40 people per hour across the training and main cavern area.

A visual overlay of one of the proposed platforms that would be installed in the cavern (Image: Lake District National Park Authority)

A large number of representations received objecting to the application make comments on elements that do not form part of the planning application, said a report by the LDNPA.

Lakes Parish Council argued the quarry should not change in nature to another type of commercial gain and it would invite more tourism into an area that already has issues with litter, traffic, noise and air pollution. 

The International Council on Monuments and Sites, the advisory body to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, called the site 'a theme park' that threatened to trivialise the historic heritage of the Lake District and Great Langdale's 'distinctive and almost intact agro-pastoral character.' 

However, the planning report said that the applicant demonstrated that the highway network could accommodate people travelling to the site by car.

It said that traffic within the national park is in Windermere, Bowness and Ambleside rather than Elterwater, and the authority has an aim to disperse visitors out of the honey pots and into the park. 

One of the visual appraisals of the site (Image: Lake District National Park Authority)

The report said tthe development would not have a harmful impact on the landscape or the character of the area as the car park is within the quarry. 

The Local Highway Authority raised no objection.

The report agrees with a response given by Historic England that the development allows for an opportunity to see currently inaccessible heritage assets. 

It also found no evidence that the development would pose harm to protected species subject to construction working methods, and there were low levels of hibernation by species of bats in the caves. 

Historic England said that the site will allow the public access to heritage assets it would not have been able to see before (Image: Lake District National Park Authority)

The report gave a long list of conditions the developer would have to abide by after approval if the committee accepted its terms. These include at least a 30 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions, a five-year travel plan, the cavern explorer route not being used by more than 294 people per day, a strict operating time of 8am to 6.30pm and the land being re-instated within nine months if tourism use ceased.