Close the campsite loophole in the Lake District
The Issue
Imagine, right behind your back garden, a pop-up campsite in a field: up to 50 pitches, around a hundred people, and only one portaloo. The smell. The noise at midnight. The litter. And a habitat where, amongst other wildlife, red squirrels and deer have been seen, gone.
That is what we are facing in Bowness-on-Windermere, where a campsite is due to open on 15 August 2026 in a conservation area, beside a Grade II listed 17th century farmhouse. A Government Planning Inspector ruled only last year that this open land contributes positively to the setting of that historic building.
On the adjoining field, an application for holiday pods was refused in April after full assessment of drainage, protected trees, access and the setting of a listed building. The campsite next door requires no assessment of any of those things and cannot be refused.
And we are told nobody can stop it.
In 2023 the Government created a permitted development right allowing pop-up campsites of up to 50 pitches with no planning permission at all. The operator simply notifies the planning authority. There is nothing to approve and nothing to refuse: no assessment of noise, waste, drainage, wildlife or fire risk, and no consideration of the families living feet away. The Lake District National Park Authority has confirmed to us in writing that whatever it thinks of the impacts, it cannot intervene, and that this is not the only such site causing concern in the National Park.
This is happening in the Windermere catchment, where the lake's water quality is already a national scandal, and inside the Windermere Villas Conservation Area, which the Authority itself designated only in June 2026 precisely because this landscape is so special.
The Lake District is a National Park and a World Heritage Site. It is supposed to be the most protected landscape in England. If a 50-pitch campsite can appear beside people's homes here, with less scrutiny than a garden shed, the word "protected" has lost its meaning.
We are asking for two things:
The Lake District National Park Authority should make an Article 4 Direction, urgently and with immediate effect in its most sensitive areas, restoring the requirement for planning permission for temporary campsites.
The Government should amend the permitted development right to exclude National Parks and conservation areas.
We are not against camping. The Lake District welcomes campers, and Bowness alone has established, well run sites minutes away. We are against a loophole that lets anyone turn any field into an unregulated campsite beside people's homes, with no questions asked.
If it can happen here, it can happen to your field too. Please sign and share.
789
The Issue
Imagine, right behind your back garden, a pop-up campsite in a field: up to 50 pitches, around a hundred people, and only one portaloo. The smell. The noise at midnight. The litter. And a habitat where, amongst other wildlife, red squirrels and deer have been seen, gone.
That is what we are facing in Bowness-on-Windermere, where a campsite is due to open on 15 August 2026 in a conservation area, beside a Grade II listed 17th century farmhouse. A Government Planning Inspector ruled only last year that this open land contributes positively to the setting of that historic building.
On the adjoining field, an application for holiday pods was refused in April after full assessment of drainage, protected trees, access and the setting of a listed building. The campsite next door requires no assessment of any of those things and cannot be refused.
And we are told nobody can stop it.
In 2023 the Government created a permitted development right allowing pop-up campsites of up to 50 pitches with no planning permission at all. The operator simply notifies the planning authority. There is nothing to approve and nothing to refuse: no assessment of noise, waste, drainage, wildlife or fire risk, and no consideration of the families living feet away. The Lake District National Park Authority has confirmed to us in writing that whatever it thinks of the impacts, it cannot intervene, and that this is not the only such site causing concern in the National Park.
This is happening in the Windermere catchment, where the lake's water quality is already a national scandal, and inside the Windermere Villas Conservation Area, which the Authority itself designated only in June 2026 precisely because this landscape is so special.
The Lake District is a National Park and a World Heritage Site. It is supposed to be the most protected landscape in England. If a 50-pitch campsite can appear beside people's homes here, with less scrutiny than a garden shed, the word "protected" has lost its meaning.
We are asking for two things:
The Lake District National Park Authority should make an Article 4 Direction, urgently and with immediate effect in its most sensitive areas, restoring the requirement for planning permission for temporary campsites.
The Government should amend the permitted development right to exclude National Parks and conservation areas.
We are not against camping. The Lake District welcomes campers, and Bowness alone has established, well run sites minutes away. We are against a loophole that lets anyone turn any field into an unregulated campsite beside people's homes, with no questions asked.
If it can happen here, it can happen to your field too. Please sign and share.
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Petition created on 6 August 2026