CHANGES at the Brockhole Visitor Centre come up for discussion next week.

The Lake District National Park Authority is seeking permission to vary a condition granted by its planning committee in November 2017.

Back then, the authority was given the go-ahead to extend and redevelop the car park at its centre between Windermere and Ambleside.

The permission allowed extra parking spaces and an improvement in the provision for coaches and sustainable transport.

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But a new landscaping plan – different to that proposed originally – has now been lodged by park officials.

It seeks to plant a larger number of smaller apple and damson trees.

These would replace a planned smaller number of larger trees such as oak, birch, alder, mountain ash and Scot’s pine.

It will involve seven more trees being planted than before.

The trees are to screen the car park from the lake and the neighbouring meadow.

Lakes Parish Council has not raised any objections nor has Natural England or Cumbria County Council, the highways authority.

However, the Forestry Commission expressed unease.

It said: “I believe these proposals do not follow the advice that was offered. Although the revised proposals will offer an increase in diversity, the chosen species are not considered to be native.”

A planning officer’s report said the trees are to compensate for the loss of native deciduous trees in the woodland affected by the car park extension.

The report by LDNPA area planner Ben Long said: “The alternative planting now proposed would be in the same general location but would cover a wider area.

“I consider that even with the smaller species, the replacement planting would serve the function of screening the car park equally well.”

The development control committee, chaired by park member Peter Allen MBE, will make a decision on Wednesday, May 1.

The officer’s recommendation is to approve the application with conditions.