MP takes Stickle Tarn fight to parliament
Local MP Tim Farron has taken the campaign to protect Stickle Tarn to Parliament.
Tim has tabled a parliamentary motion on the issue and has used the opportunity to call on the Lake District National Park Authority to 'not just think again about the plans, but to drop the sale altogether'.
Tim's motion says: "That this House notes Stickle Tarn in the Langdale Pikes is widely regarded as one of the finest beauty spots in the Lake District National Park; further notes that the Lake District National Park Authority intends to sell the Tarn for a price estimated to be between £20,000 to £30,000; welcomes the opportunity provided to local communities by this Government via the Localism Act 2011 to register such sites with the local authority as assets of community value; further welcomes the fact that the Act allows local communities to bid to acquire such assets; celebrates the initiative and hard work of the Langdale Valley Association in seeking to register the Tarn as a Community Asset; and expresses support to the Langdale Valley Association's campaign to raise funds to buy the Tarn for the benefit of the local community."
At the end of February Langdale Valley Association submitted the required forms to begin the process of registering Stickle Tarn as a community asset. If successful this will give campaigners 6 months to prepare a bid to buy it, before the asset can be sold on the open market. Currently the sale will be by tender with a closing date of 12 March.
Tim said: "There is still time for the National Park to drop this plan to sell Stickle Tarn. No matter the assurances they secure or offer - for me it's the principle of the matter. When I voted against the government on the selloff of our forests, it was because I believed that we should not sell the family silver. The same principle applies to Stickle Tarn.
"I will keep making the case that it should not be sold off, but I am also working with local community groups and campaigners to try and put together an 11th hour bid to keep the tarn where it belongs, in the people's hands."
Tim's Early Day Motion on Stickle Tarn can be found here: http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2014-15/826