Plans for animal reserve on edge of Yorkshire Dales National Park rejected

Permission has been refused for an animal reserve in the Yorkshire Dales National Park despite initial plans for rhinos, giraffes and honey badgers being changed to the site housing sheep, goats and ducks.

Plans for the Into The Wilds reserve and visitor attraction off the M6 at Tebay were submitted by the operators of the now-closed South Lakes Safari Zoo.

The applicants initially said the reserve would feature exotric species such as white rhinos, giraffes, honey badgers, zebras, red pandas, sloths, and lynx.

But revised plans submitted to the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) proposed that just sheep, goats, pigs, cows, hens, geese and ducks be kept on the site.

Helen Stocks, agent for the applicants, told a YDNPA planning meeting on Tuesday that officers’ concerns and the rehousing of animals due to be brought to the reserve meant the application had been changed.

The application, which also included three shepherds’ huts for visitors, was recommended for refusal by planning officers, who raised a number of concerns including the impact on archaeological remains because of the presence of an Iron Age/Romano-British settlement site on the land.

YDNPA planning officer Nicola Dinsdale said in a report to members of the authority that the case was further complicated because work had already taken place on the site, with facilities for rhinos already built, along with stables and a welcome centre.  She said: “In the opinion of the local planning authority, the proposed visitor attraction, physical development comprising shepherds’ huts, car park, passing places, extended rhino hard standing, tracks and pathways, external lighting and other associated development, and the intensification in activity at the site, would result in significant harm to the visual quality and intrinsic character of the national park landscape. The cumulative effect of the extent and visual clutter of development would detract from the scenic drama and underdeveloped pastoral quality of the landscape and the qualities of drama, wildness and tranquillity that contribute to the intrinsic character of the area.”

Proposing the application was refused, committee member Lizzie Bushby said: “In my view, this proposal doesn’t deliver national park purposes, it doesn’t give great weight to the landscape in the Lake District or the Yorkshire Dales National Park in line with the national planning policy framework.

“The rhino enclosure is really clearly visible in a location that is a gateway to both the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District.”

Alan Kirkbride said the new plans, without the wild animals, were akin to a farm diversification scheme. He added: “I can’t see a large amount of problem with it. It’s a simple farm diversification scheme. What you’re getting is small-scale farm animals. If it had been situated anywhere else, there wouldn’t be a lot of problems.”

But Richard Foster said the unauthorised work and the changes to the scheme meant it was a very complicated application to assess.
He added: “We’ve got a rhino yard and a rhino building, but we’re not going to have any rhinos.”

Members voted to reject the application and to delegate powers to officers to take enforcement action against the applicants for the work that had already taken place without permission.

The application was submitted by New Roots Holding Company Limited, which is run by several people involved in Cumbria Zoo Company Limited (CZCL), which ran the South Lakes Safari Zoo, including chief executive Karen Brewer.

The zoo near Dalton shut in January. It had been embroiled in a bitter legal dispute with the owners of the land, Zoo Investment Company, for several years.