The Lake District is being sold off: here
Here at Oak Furniture UK, weve always cared for and loved the area around our beautiful town of Workington. As you may have seen from our Facebook and Twitter accounts, weve done our best to relay information about local events, alerts and places of interest; whether thats in Workington, Cumbria, or the Lake District as a whole.
Which is why, when we heard about the eight pieces of the Lake District being sold by the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA), we felt like we had to say something. By the end of next week, nearly 100 acres of treasured public land are to be sold off for the price of a mere £600,000.
Some of this land, which has been enjoyed by countless generations, is being sold for around £10,000 to £20,000 around the price of a second hand car. Whats more, Sickle Tarn, one of the most beautiful lakes in the world reachable only by a one hour walk via Mill Gill is to be sold off for a mere £30,000; a price that wouldnt even purchase a bedroom in some parts of London.
It has been said that the buyers of the land will have limited opportunity to profit from their purchases, as any bought land will still have to remain fully accessible to the public, but where will the sale of the Lake District end?
According to an article written by Harry Wallop of The Telegraph:
How can we know for sure that this sale will not, as many fear, be the thin end of the wedge for more publicly-held land in the Lakes and other National Parks.
As if to underline this point, the LDNPA has not ruled out selling Striding Edge, possibly the most famous footpath in England, which leads up to Helvellyn.
And while the Authority has made clear that any development on these plots of land is very unlikely, who is the planning body in the National Park? That would be the LDNPA.
According to Mr Wallop, four of the plots in the sale talk about overage, which means that the LDNPA would reap a 50 per cent cut of any uplift in the value of the land from the grant of planning permission over a period of 80 years.
It must be useful therefore, to have such an obligation in a sale of land where development is deemed unlikely.
According to Richard Leafe, who runs the LDNPA, government cuts are partly responsible for the sale of the land, which has cost the Lake District around £1.56 million since 2010.
If you want to stop some of the most idyllic parts of our countryside falling into private hands, then you can petition against the sales on change.org, here.
At the time of writing there have been seven thousand signatures, along with considerable outcry from the national media.