Campaign group Keep Penrith Special is deeply concerned that a bid by the town council to protect Beacon Hill does not go far enough.
While strongly supporting Penrith Town Council’s creation of a policy to protect Beacon Hill from development, the group has asked for changes to be made to make it more robust.
A spokesman for the campaign group said supporters were deeply concerned that the proposed policy only covers a section of Beacon Hill — not the greater area to the north which would be more vulnerable to development.
“We have concerns that any development here would be the thin end of the wedge, with developments spilling out into surrounding fields and crucially into those on the Eden Valley side as was once marked out on the masterplan,” said the spokesman.
They added that any development in that area would mean the loss of nearly everything the policy was trying to protect, including views to and from the Beacon, the flora and fauna, plus its woodland character.
The group asked the town council to consider going further and finding a way to protect the entirety of Beacon Hill.
A meeting of Penrith Town Council was told last week that residents felt passionately about wanting to protect the Beacon for present and future generations.
“I think it’s definitely fair to say that this is one of the most important issues for people in Penrith,” said Scott Jackson, chairman of the town council’s planning committee.
Given the strength of feeling which exists, which was stirred up when Eden Council proposed a masterplan which included plans for development on the Beacon, Mr Jackson said the town council’s neighbourhood development plan sought to protect as much of the area as possible.
“During the pandemic it was the lungs of the town – a beautiful place to go and walk which people needed, valued and loved and were quite literally saved by having such a beautiful area to walk in,” said Mr Jackson.
He said the Beacon also had historical significance.
When the town council was recording memories for the VE day commemorations about people during the Second World War period it was said that when townsfolk returned from serving their country all over the world, they knew they were home when they saw Beacon Hill.
“It is an intrinsic part of being a resident of Penrith that you look up at that Beacon and know where you are – there’s nothing quite like it,” said Mr Jackson.
He said it had been agreed the area for inclusion in the neighbourhood development plan would be the front of the Beacon, away from the commercial forestry, as national planning policy states that areas designated as local green space cannot be extensive tracts of land.
“We have an opportunity within the neighbourhood development plan to designate an area of the Beacon as special and protected, but within the rules developed and set down by national policy there are restrictions on that.
“Within the policy we did as much as we could and we specifically wanted to make sure that the perfect is not the enemy of the good.
“We do not under any circumstances wish to limit any other initiatives or attempts to protect as much of the Beacon as possible, but in the realm of planning policy we felt that this was the best that we could do in the circumstances,” said Mr Jackson.
It was agreed that the policy, subject to some changes of wording suggested by Keep Penrith Special, be submitted to the independent inspector of the Penrith neighbourhood development plan for approval.
If it fails to be approved, Beacon Hill would remain under the protection it has at the moment in Eden District Council’s local plan which already allows for tourism accommodation and facilities on it, the meeting was told.
