Lottery splashes out £2m on lake

Dec 12 2006 By The Journal

Almost £2m in lottery cash will be sunk into a pioneering landscape scheme to help transform a lake.

The Heritage Lottery Fund money will back 22 projects in a three-year community restoration package for Bassenthwaite in the Lake District.

The HLF is giving £1.85m with the rest coming from the EU and additional sources taking the total to £2.8m.

Bassenthwaite Lake Restoration Programme manager John Pinder said yesterday: "There has been a huge amount of work developing a programme, and communities support our proposals.

"Now we have the money to go back and get the conservation ball rolling."

Five new Keswick-based jobs are being created to run projects to raise awareness and rally support for the lake, its surroundings and wildlife, with the ultimate aim of returning the water to its clear, pre-war state.

Mr Pinder added: "This isn't a dry, dull debate. It's great, vibrant action designed for all ages and abilities.

"We are creating heritage trails and a nature reserve, looking at history, organising European cultural exchanges, training young foresters and planting native trees which will help stem soil erosion."

HLF's regional manager Tony Jones said Bassenthwaite was a "nationally important" landscape, home to a huge variety of species ranging from osprey to endangered vendace fish, dating from the Ice Age.