A SPONTANEOUS whip-round in a village hall raised more than £400 to launch a "fighting fund" in a bid to stop a proposed timeshare development in its tracks, writes Tourism Reporter Nadia Jefferson-Brown.

Members of Grasmere Village Society staged a special meeting so local residents could examine the controversial plans for 20 "shared ownership" lodges within the grounds of The Swan Hotel off the A591.

The proposal by owner and applicant Macdonald Hotels Ltd also involves the conversion of bedrooms into 10 apartments along with a leisure centre, pool and parking.

As previously reported, the hotel's joint general manager Terry Woolcock said the company wanted to develop the property

to meet customer's

demand and offer value for money.

Lakes parish councillor Vivienne Rees, whose ward is Grasmere, said more than 80 residents and several visitors turned up to the meeting - the number would have been higher if the cold weather had not kept some people indoors that evening, she said.

Coun Rees, who took minutes of the meeting, said the gathering was "astonished" at the scale of the proposal and "vigorously opposed" the planning application "wholeheartedly", backing the Lakes Parish Council's recommendation for it to be rejected.

The council had been concerned about the development being visually intrusive, out-of-scale for the location,

with inadequate parking, a narrow access lane and insufficient pro-vision for delivery vehicles.

Several people at the village society meeting spoke out against the appli-cation amid fears that it would damage the char-acter of Grasmere.

"They felt that Grasmere has remained relatively unspoilt and that this was the beginning of what someone called urban sprawl. They felt it would have a domino effect," said Coun Rees.

Other concerns focused on the potential impact of more traffic on the roads, and increased demand on the village sewerage system.

It was felt professional advice should be sought to ensure residents' views were heard during the planning process, and it was suggested that funds should be raised, she added.

"Everyone felt very strongly about it; they had a whip-round straight away and collected among themselves £420. They handed that to the village society treasurer, to be kept as the beginning of the fighting fund," said Coun Rees.

The final decision on the application rests with the Lake District National Park Authority.

February 13, 2003 12:01