The Lake District – should it be sold off to the highest bidder?

The Lake District National Park is selling off 8 plots of land. Is this sensible managment of taxpayers' funds or flogging off the crown jewels of England?


The view from Stickle Tarn, Lake District, one of the 8 plots of land being sold by the Lake District National Park Authority

The estate agent’s particulars boast about the property being “iconic”. And, for once, they are not exaggerating. This is your chance to own a lake in the Lake District.

And what a lake it is. Admittedly, any new owner will need some stout walking boots and stronger pair of lungs, as I discovered when I huffed and puffed up Mill Gill this week to reach it. It’s an hour-long, steep ascent from the car park. At the top, there are no buildings, just a few millions of gallons of glacial water: Stickle Tarn. Overlooked by the vast, brooding slab of sandstone that is Pavey Ark, the 24-acre lake is magical. And it could be yours for a mere £20,000 to £30,000 – no more than the price of a conservatory.

The tarn is one of eight pieces of land put up for sale by the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA), the public body that oversees this area. They include Yewbarrow Woods, in Longsleddale, a 36-acre site that teems with ancient mosses, oak and hazel trees, with a guide price of £120,000. Then there is Blea Brows, a 10-acre piece of land that slopes down to the edge of Coniston Water.

By the end of next week, 100 acres of the Lake District, formerly in public ownership, could be in private hands. It sounds like a disaster in the making. Tim Farron, the local MP, certainly thinks so. He is one of many unequivocally opposed and talks of “selling off the Crown Jewels of England” and “vandalism pure and simple”. Anne Sowerbutts, a former head teacher and now a member of the Lakes parish council reckons that “Beatrix Potter would be turning in her grave”.

She has a point. The children’s author spent a large chunk of her fortune buying up land in her beloved Lakes specifically to hand it over to the nation. That hardly squares with the LDNPA sale, which appears to be yet another attempt by the Government and its quangos to auction off public assets to the first person prepared to open their wallet – be it for the Royal Mail, national forests or Eurostar.

Happily, buyers of the land on sale in the Lake District will have limited opportunities to earn an income from their new asset. The appeal to any potential hedge fund or Chinese state investment trust will be minimal, as all purchased land will have to remain fully accessible to the public – wild swimmers and fell walkers alike. Indeed, far from turning a profit, any new owner will have to pay for the privilege of maintaining dry stone walls and managing the forestry. The purchase is akin to buying a painting by Constable and promising not only to pay for any restoration, but vouchsafing that it will remain in the National Gallery.

So nothing to worry about then? Well, the LDNPA says that it has already received 50 serious bids for the plots. This suggests there are an awful lot of rich, vain people who want the sheer pleasure of saying: “I own this”. How can we know for sure they will be the best custodians of the most beautiful spots in the country? 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.

Indeed, four of the plots up for sale include terms of sale that explicitly talk about “overage” – a concept whereby the LDNPA enjoys 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” following the sale. Who is to say commercial mountain biking or zip-wire operation would not win approval in Red Bank Woods? Or perhaps a small eco-friendly café in Baneriggs Wood offering tourists traditional Cumbrian sausages and tattie pot? When we taxpayers no longer own such land, inevitably our say over what happens there is compromised.

Richard Leafe, who runs the LDNPA admits government cuts are partly responsible for the sale, which in total should raise £500,000. But he insists that his decision is driven by a more important point. Namely, he has a duty to ensure he gets value for money from taxpayers’ assets, and a public body should not need to own the land in order to be a good custodian of it. The biggest landlords in the Lakes, he points out, are United Utilities and the National Trust. The Authority holds a mere 3.9 per cent of the Park and it is selling 0.2 per cent of it. In other National Parks, such as the New Forest, the managing authority does not own any land at all.

But his argument about sweating assets is an argument that invariably leads to disposals. And disposals always carry risks, for they are final. Just think of the catastrophically poor timing of Gordon Brown’s sale of our gold reserves.

Back in the 1870s a “Second Doomsday Book” was published; it found that all 60 million acres in Britain were owned by just 4.5 per cent of the population. The rest owned nothing at all. It was considered a scandal at the time. But since then a revolution in land ownership has occurred. The great aristocratic families have, in the main, acceded control to public bodies, be it the National Trust, the Forestry Commission or the National Parks. Never before have we been able to say of so much of Britain: “This is our land”.

Do we really want to reverse that trend?

The full list of gems for sale is:

1. Stickle Tarn, Great Langdale, LA22 9JX



Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. The iconic, simply majestic, stunning Tarn. Heart of the Lake District National Park, including a surrounding strip of land. Access from Dungeon Ghyll Hotel via Stickle Ghyll. Wonderful fell views and across the Langdale Valley.

GUIDE PRICES: £20,000 to £30,000

About 24.23 acres (9.81 hectares)

2. Yewbarrow Woods, Longsleddale, LA8 9BB



Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. Extremely fine, impressive, deciduous woodland. Easterly slopes of the picturesque tranquil valley, just north of Kendal. Species include Oak, Sycamore, Birch, Ash and Hazel. Abundance of wildlife. About 35.93 acres (15.54 hectares).

GUIDE PRICES: £110,000 to £130,000

3. Blue Hill and Red Bank Wood, LA22 0AY



Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. A prominent, extremely appealing mixed woodland of high amenity value. Located south east of the town with superb westerly views. Oak, Ash Sycamore, Cherry, Birch and Beech. Subject to the Countryside Rights of Way Act. About 16.21 acres (6.56 hectares).

GUIDE PRICES: £100,000 to £120,000

4. Blea Brows, Coniston Water, LA12 8DW

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03196/bleabrows_3196861c.jpg

Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. A truly wonderful, majestic, stretch of shoreline. Prominent rocky features, variety of trees, stunning views. Immense amenity value. Wonderful birdlife. 575m of Lake Frontage. About 9.99 acres (4.07 hectares).

GUIDE PRICES: £70,000 to £90,000

5. Lady Wood, White Moss, LA22 9SF



Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. An absolutely stunning small wood overlooking Grasmere.Fine mixture of Sycamore, Oak, Ash, Beech, Pine and Larch. Wonderful views across Grasmere towards Fells. GUIDE PRICES: £20,000 to £25,000

6. Baneriggs Wood, White Moss, LA22 9SF



Summary: On the instructions from the Lake District National Park Authority. An exceptional mature deciduous woodland of high amenity value in the heart of the Lake District National Park. About 16.02 acres (6.48 hectares).

GUIDE PRICES: £110,000 to £130,000

7. Amenity land with river frontage, Portinscale, CA12 5RA



Summary: An attractive parcel of land next to the River Derwent. 120m of River Frontage. Edge of Portinscale village. Roadside access. About 0.64 acres (0.26 hectares).

GUIDE PRICES: £8,000 to £10,000

8. Waterside Knott, Newby Bridge, Ulverston LA12 8AW

An area of approximately 40.76 acres with historic viewing tower in the heart of the Lake District. Amongs the wildlife species found in the area are red squirrels, door mice, grass snakes and roe and red deer.

GUIDE PRICE: £130,000

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/countryside/11454983/The-Lake-District-should-it-be-sold-off-to-the-highest-bidder.html


They'd sell off their grandmother's knickers if they thought they would get 50p for them!

insanity. pure greed.disgusting.

Conservatives.

Beautiful country, BTW.

Don't forget the plot of land I own in Glencoe Scotland. With the land goes the title of Lord of Glencoe and the right to be called SIR. I am open to offers to purchase this land. Bidding starts at £1,ooo,ooo.

nicko wrote:Don't forget the plot of land I own in Glencoe Scotland. With the land goes the title of Lord of Glencoe and the right to be called SIR.  I am open to offers to purchase this land.   Bidding starts at  £1,ooo,ooo.

I'll give you £8.50

I'L think about it!

nicko wrote:I'L think about it!

I will be a Lady

No chance, [joke]

nicko wrote:No chance,   [joke]

Cheeky bugger

I'll have piece 2 just right for a bit of shooting and stalking

eddie wrote:

nicko wrote:Don't forget the plot of land I own in Glencoe Scotland. With the land goes the title of Lord of Glencoe and the right to be called SIR.  I am open to offers to purchase this land.   Bidding starts at  £1,ooo,ooo.

I'll give you £8.50

I bid £9.99

Don't think I'd want a bit of Glencoe, too much blood spilt there.

nicko wrote:Don't forget the plot of land I own in Glencoe Scotland. With the land goes the title of Lord of Glencoe and the right to be called SIR.  I am open to offers to purchase this land.   Bidding starts at  £1,ooo,ooo.

Nicko, the only people that would offer you decent money for your plot would be a Campbell. It's worthless to anyone else because the soil of Glencoe is stained with blood caused by their treachery.
There's a pub in Glencoe called the Claghaig Inn and there is a sign on it that says No Hawkers or Campbell's.

I think Quill may have mentioned this before on the old SF forum when I think he said he had a drink there.

The Campbell homepage is the only one that brags about their bad reputation:

Thc Campbells wrote:No family in Scotland has achieved greater success or more hatred (probably one because of the other) than the Campbell Clan. Almost all the clans dislike us, even to this day. It is perhaps the necessary tribute paid to success, for after every conflict or upheaval in the Highlands the Clan has come out of the turmoil with more property. (The hatred may also be attributed to the fact that the warlike Campbells very nearly annihilated the entire McDonald clan.) Certainly there is no greater family among the nobility of Scotland.

I can personally vouch for the unpopularity of the Campbell Clan among many of the Scots of modern-day Britain. While traveling in Scotland I mentioned to a cab driver I was a Campbell. He warned me not to mention it again, as the Campbells were not well regarded in Scotland.

Original Quill wrote:The Campbell homepage is the only one that brags about their bad reputation:

Thc Campbells wrote:No family in Scotland has achieved greater success or more hatred (probably one because of the other) than the Campbell Clan. Almost all the clans dislike us, even to this day. It is perhaps the necessary tribute paid to success, for after every conflict or upheaval in the Highlands the Clan has come out of the turmoil with more property. (The hatred may also be attributed to the fact that the warlike Campbells very nearly annihilated the entire McDonald clan.) Certainly there is no greater family among the nobility of Scotland.

I can personally vouch for the unpopularity of the Campbell Clan among many of the Scots of modern-day Britain. While traveling in Scotland I mentioned to a cab driver I was a Campbell. He warned me not to mention it again, as the Campbells were not well regarded in Scotland.

Good find that Quill. I'd never seen that before. Here's the sign in the pub.

darknessss wrote:I'll have piece 2   just right for a bit of shooting and stalking

Stalking???!!! who are you stalking, come on, you can tell me.  I can keep a secret

its behind yOOOOOOOOOOO