Lambton Park scraps plans to open to public

A popular walking sport for North East families will not be opening in February as planned.

The Lambton Estate had been closed to the public for decades since the safari park in the grounds shut its doors in 1980.

But the estate opened almost 10 miles of new pathways as part of a major redevelopment in July 2020.

Four new walks were created, accessible from a car park off the A183 at Bournmoor.

The new pathways were initially only open to the public each Sunday and proved massively popular, with a visitors’ car park regularly overflowing and cars having to be redirected into the parking spaces reserved for offices on the estate.

On the last day of opening for the season in the autumn, dozens of cars were turned away due to demand.

September 27, 2020 was the last Sunday of the first season and the walkways have been closed since.

The park was supposed to be open daily from today, but will now remain closed until further notice.

A statement on the Lambton Park Facebook page said: "Due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation, the condition of the permissive access routes due to the wet autumn and winter and having notified Durham County Council, we are unable to open the permissive access routes from the 1st February as planned.”

Bosses have now been granted permission to build a new car park for visitors, which is due to open later this year.

Parking charges will be in place but the aim is simply to cover the cost of building and maintaining the car park.