AMBITIOUS plans to transform Bowness Bay have been labelled ‘too radical’.

The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) has put forward four options. One is to do nothing and option two is to build a hotel on the Windermere Aquatics site, improve toilets, build new public jetties and spruce up the area.

Option three would see the hotel, toilet and environment improvements and a new retail unit built where the tennis courts and tourist information centre are now, a new car park at Braithwaite Fold and a new boardwalk and promenade.

The final option is as option three with the addition of a visual arts centre on the waterside.

At a meeting of Windermere Town Council, Coun Adrian Legge said: “None of these options are acceptable. We clearly can’t do nothing because the Glebe, as we all know, needs improving but the next stage up is too radical. There’s nothing in between. We need an option one-and-a-half.”

Coun Alan Winrow said he did not think that options three or four were ‘sympathetic to the area’ and was ‘minded to go with option two’.

However, he added: “We don’t need another hotel, we’ve got hotels coming out of our ears. The majority of people who go there are day trippers. They want a cup of tea and a boat trip. They don’t want to see a hotel.”