THE owner of south Cumbria’s biggest tourist attraction has hit out after an ambitious £4m project to almost double its size was thrown out by planners.

Despite remaining confident that his plan will eventually come to fruition David Gill, who runs South Lakes Wild Animal Park, Dalton-in-Furness, believes Barrow Borough Council has made the wrong decision.

The planning committee voted eight to two against the scheme last night, going against a recommendation to approve the application from the council’s own planning officers.

They felt it was an over-development of a green field site and there were concerns about access and the effect the project would have on residents of nearby Melton Terrace.

The decision will be rubber-stamped at their next meeting on August 23.

The development would have created a new access road, a new car park for 600 vehicles, improved visitor facilities, and more enclosures for animals.

In a statement, Mr Gill, who is currently in the USA, said: “It is a gross disappointment once again to see the very people who the electorate vote for doing the exact opposite of the majority view.

“A clear failure of democratic values, because it is obvious that the support from the local population for this expansion is huge and overwhelmingly in favour of it.

“Where do the councillors expect people to park? How do they think we can stop the road being blocked by cars parking on the road?

"We had this same illogical approach to our last main car park application.

"We won on appeal and the car park has been a huge success and is not visible from anywhere.

“It seems that six or eight people on Melton Terrace have managed to hijack the opinions of councillors against the wishes of around 600 to 800 residents who would have benefitted directly and dramatically from the changes proposed and the whole community of Furness who have the benefit of a flagship national attraction in their midst.”

Mr Gill was referring to objections made at the meeting, in Barrow Town Hall, where residents expressed their strong feelings against the proposal because of the increase in traffic going by their front doors.

Angela Butcher, of Melton Terrace, said: “Our homes will become prisons. Each individual has the right to live in a clean, safe environment.”

Clifford Hindle told the committee he had been using the proposed access route for the attraction’s new entrance for 50 years.

He said: “It is the wrong place to bring cars in.”

Project manager Karen Brewer argued that the scheme, four years in the making, was ‘vital’ for the safety of visitors to the park, which attracts more than 300,000 people a year.

Committee chair Coun Anne Burns proposed the plan be turned down, and said: “This is a massive development.

"If it goes ahead it will urbanise Melton Terrace.”