Treetop Trek’s claim in their Consultation Report contained in planning application - 7/2017/2298

In the consultation report, the applicant claims that Friends of the Lake District previously supported Thirlmere as a suitable location for zip wire development. The applicant has also chosen to oversimplify the summary of our discussions on 27th July 2017.

We would like to clarify this issue. Friends of the Lake District were approached by Mike Turner of Treetop Trek nearly 3 years ago and asked for an opinion on where in the Lake District a zip wire proposal would be acceptable. Our representative at that time answered that any zip wire proposal should be outwith the Lake District National Park. During this discussion we stated, as we always have, that zip wire development and similar assault course type activities are best accommodated in forest settings such as Go Ape located in Grizedale where there is the capacity to contain the impacts.

During this discussion Thirlmere was brought up as an area to look at due to the plantations but at no point did Friends of The Lake District endorse this as a suitable location and we certainly would never have endorsed zip wires across the lake. Furthermore, the applicant did not seek any further discussions on developing their proposal with Friends of the Lake District until the current scheme was unveiled on 27^th July 2017.

For Tree Top Trek to claim that Friends of the Lake District in any way suggested or endorsed Thirlmere as a location for this proposal is wholly inaccurate. Friends of the Lake District has not been party to any discussions in the development of this particular proposal nor have we ever suggested that zip wire development would be appropriate in this location.

Mr Turner has chosen to be selective in disseminating information regarding his discussions with us 3 years ago and did not follow up these discussions in the development of his proposal.  If he had done, we would categorically have stated that the proposal is unsuitable for this site.

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