My ward has featured in the news quite a bit recently, from the proposed Ullock Moss car park in Newlands Valley to the proposed work at Crummock Water.
The first is easy. If building more facilities for car use solved congestion problems, road safety problems and climate change, we would have solved it all years ago. We have continued to build roads and car parks, and car use has continued to grow, outstripping its new facilities in just a few years. A car park through the village of Portinscale will make life worse for its inhabitants and do nothing to reduce car use. The solution long-term is to build a car park by the A66 and run shuttle buses from there to the various tourist destinations, keeping cars out of our quiet valleys.
The second is more complicated. I really want to be able to support the removal of the dam/weir at Crummock, the rewiggling of Park Beck and the Cocker and the naturalising of lake levels. The removal of concrete from the natural environment before it starts to crumble has to be a good thing and there should be long-term benefits to wildlife – flora and fauna. I recognise that change is always difficult for people to accept. Remember how controversial the rewilding project at Haweswater was in the planning stage and how it has become one of our national treasures? United Utilities were involved in that too.
In principle this must be a good thing, however United Utilities have not made it easy to support the Crummock project. The Environment Agency has pointed out faults in the flood reduction modelling, (largely to do with the use of previous flood risk maps), which is now being reworked. Cumberland Highways needs more information (largely on the surfacing of rights of way, and on car parking arrangements) before they can reach a decision. Natural England doesn’t seem to have responded as yet. I am therefore glad that the Lake District National Park has suspended the planning application until such time as the correct flood risk modelling has been done and further data has been provided to Cumberland Highways. I also wait with interest for Natural England’s response.
When the planning process is resumed, I hope to be able to support it. I know that it will be monitored by statutory agencies (both Natural England and the Environment Agency) while it is a live project and trust them to ensure it is properly delivered.
Cllr Jill Perry