Lake District battle over cable car link

THE Lake District’s unspoilt beauty has enchanted lovers of the outdoors for more than two centuries.

So campaigners there have reacted with horror at a proposal for a cable car in the national park.

Just months after seeing off plans for a zip wire ride across Thirlmere, they are gearing up to fight plans for a gondola ride from the A66 near Keswick up to the Whinlatter Forest, which is popular with walkers and mountain bikers.

The Lake District National Park Authority says the link will cut the number of cars on the roads.

However, the group Friends of the Lake District says such ‘artificial attractions’ risk undermining what makes the area special. The group said the cable car would be ‘visible from iconic viewpoints such as Latrigg and Dodd Fell’.

Its chief executive Douglas Chalmers warned that threatening the wild beauty of the landscape would damage tourism and the jobs it provides.

The park authority’s draft plan for the next 15 years suggests there are ‘significant opportunities for intensification’ at the Whinlatter Forest visitor centre. The proposed gondola could be linked to the busy town of Keswick four miles away by a shuttle bus.

Campaigners have held rallies against the plan in the hope it will go the same way as the zipwire at Thirlmere.