OBJECTORS' joy at successfully opposing increased flying at a parachute centre on the Cartmel Peninsula may yet turn out to be short-lived.

Dozens of residents from villages packed the public gallery at Kendal town hall as the district council's development control committee met. The committee had to decide the application by the North West Parachute Centre at Cark Airfield, Flookburgh, to allow flights on Fridays and on other 30 weekdays over the summer at the moment parachute centre flights are restricted to weekends.

Many members of the public spoke against the NWPC plan and, after a two-hour debate, the committee decided to refuse the extension.

However, Mark Richardson, SLDC's head of Environmental Protection, warned that the council could well have the decision overturned if the centre appealed against it.

During the debate, Ken Phillips, speaking on behalf of 48 residents of Kirkhead Road, Grange-over-Sands, told members the "constant droning" overhead had worsened over the last two or three years.

"This has made our gardens virtual no-go areas. If there were people playing constant loud music to the same degree they would almost certainly be prosecuted under noise abatement rules."

Farmer Bruce Lodge, who lives around 200 yards from the airfield runway, said he could not hold a conversation in his house even with the doors and windows closed when the planes were running and he could hear the "crack" of parachutes opening overhead.

Others, from as far afield as Baycliff and Allithwaite, spoke of having their lives blighted by the sound of the aeroplanes taking off, climbing to drop-altitude and returning to the airfield for 12 hours a

day on summer weekends and said the better the weather, the worse the problem

became.

But Mike Carruthers, co-owner of the North West Parachute Centre, said objectors were wildly exaggerating the extent of the problem and claimed that, on one day in September, when objectors claimed that planes flew from 9am to 9pm,

flight logs showed there had only been seven hours' flying time.

He also said the number of hours flown had fallen from more than 440 a year two decades ago to 220 in 2002 the year about which the objectors had most complaints.

His father, Ray Carruthers, described the Peninsula Anti-Noise Group set up to oppose increased flying hours as: "a minority who aim to stop this application and close the North West Parachute Centre."

Mark Richardson told the committee he had spent many hours on the issues surrounding the application and had concluded that he could only recommend refusal. Councillors overwhelmingly agreed, but Mr Richardson warned: "I have to advise councillors that the grounds for refusal are not strong. I'm far from 100 per cent sure that we would win any appeal that may result."

After the decision, Mike Carruthers declined to comment.

May 1, 2003 15:00