The National Trust has said it would object to plans by The Longleat Estate to build a cable car across Cheddar Gorge.
The area is world famous both for its landscape and prehistoric heritage and supporters of the scheme say it would bring economic benefits in terms of increased visitor numbers. However, a spokesman for the Trust (which owns some of the land over which the cable cars were planned to pass) said “We’ve looked at the benefits the cable car will bring and we’ve looked at the impact it’s going to have……we just feel this visual impact… is too much”.
This is not necessarily the end of the matter though. A second public consultation is due in September and a spokesman for The Longleat Estate pointed out “It’s always possible to reroute. There are various ways that you can get up to the top.”
The company says that a survey shows a majority of those asked have no major objections to the scheme. However, the precise wording of the questions that enabled them to claim that doesn’t seem to have been made public. Perhaps it would be helpful for any future consultation to be conducted by an independent body and for a single simple question to be asked: “Yes or No?” The idea that most people would support such a plan is hard to believe, to put it mildly!
Update: There is now a ‘Keep Cheddar Gorgeous‘ campaign website objecting to the proposals.
The Heritage Journal 
31 comments
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02/07/2012 at 18:24
Maggs
As with all these things, the people most adversely affected say NO justifiably but the greater majority of those that will enjoy the facility have the greater say – Democracy in action hmmmmm
Taking off the Heritage tinted spectacles for a moment, i can just see the majority of visitors/tourists jumping at the chance to pass over the gorge in a cable car, gawping out of the windows.
Is this really the way forward for UK Heritage? to be enjoyed from afar and from the confines of a moving weather proof cubicle?
02/07/2012 at 19:05
Pat
I’m sure anyone/everyone would find it thrilling to pass over the gorge in a cable car but I also suspect most people would feel the price – i.e. the negative effect on a truly iconic landscape – wouldn’t be worth paying. I hope so anyway.
02/07/2012 at 19:22
Maggs
* I also suspect most people would feel the price – i.e. the negative effect on a truly iconic landscape – wouldn’t be worth paying. I hope so anyway.*
Dream on. The tacky and artificial world of the Wookey hole Caves are just around the corner
http://www.wookey.co.uk/
Hoards of sandle wearing chavs licking their ice creams would love to go over the gorge in a cable car as part of their holiday ‘experience’ and gawp out the window of their cabin at the magnificent view below.
These Urban Chavs don’t give a toss about our threatened Heritage, instead choosing to get their kicks with immediacy and with maximum gain for least effort. The scary thing is this sub section of society is growing in numbers and strength via the vote and Governments are now appealing to them to garner support at elections.
I can see a time in the not too distant future where our major heritage sites have become tacky theme parks to amuse the uncultured and uneducated classes and where the mighty £££ reins supreme over common sense.
03/07/2012 at 11:11
claire
As I understand it, the Longleat Estate own land either side of the gorge while the gorge itself is owned by the National Trust. Longleat is well know for being a ‘day out’ attraction so they are bound to want to pursue this with enthusiasm.
However, having been on holidays in some stunning parts of the world and traveled in cable cars across stunning parts of the world, I can’t say that the cable car detracted from the overall view and experience but instead, for me, enhanced it.
It really is a case of adjusting ones mindset and being more open with your own thoughts and possibilities.
If it brings in extra visitors and extra income to the local economy then that is not a bad thing.
03/07/2012 at 11:37
Tim
“It really is a case of adjusting ones mindset and being more open with your own thoughts and possibilities.”
How fortunate there are a lot of people not willing to do that!
03/07/2012 at 15:51
Claire
“It really is a case of adjusting ones mindset and being more open with your own thoughts and possibilities.”
How fortunate there are a lot of people not willing to do that!
——————————————————————————————-
And they are known as being ‘blinkered’. It is not a case of saying “Yes” it is instead a case of just exploring all the possibilities in ones own mind before reaching a final decision, which need not necessarily be contrary to your initial thoughts. If ones mind is opened, you may come up with an alternative viewpoint that is a mix of the two opposed points, but could ultimately be that ‘Eureka’ moment.
03/07/2012 at 16:40
Epona
Maggs. How sad to read your comment about ‘urban chavs’. I think you have been reading the Daily Mail too much. Unless ‘cultured and educated’ types like yourself don’t do that sort of thing. If such a subset of society really exists I hardly think they will be voting for this government – rather, this government demonises them as you are. The real culprits ruining our countryside are those selling it off to the highest bidder to put concrete all over. Or indeed, cable car stations. I don’t particularly want to see cable cars crossing the gorge, but something like a funicular railway at the bottom end of the gorge to get people to the top wouldn’t be such a bad thing? Only 2% of visitors get up the steps.
Click to access Cheddar_Gorge_March_consultation_feedback_report%28final%29%28no_appends%29.pdf
Maybe your post is just a windup though.
03/07/2012 at 17:24
Tim
So all those who object to a landowner running cable cars across a priceless landscape “are known as being ‘blinkered’” are they?
Does that include the NT?
03/07/2012 at 18:31
Claire
Tim, in your case ‘Yes’ you are blinkered. However if you actually managed to comprehend and understand what I had written, you would have not have posted your comment above.
03/07/2012 at 19:06
Maggs
I stand by my original comment regarding Chavs being an undesirable subset of modern society. Go to Wookey hole if you want to see them being disgorged from buses or arriving in their clapped out cars with their fat kids, dropping litter, gawping and then moving on to the next attraction.
Sadly, Government and business suck up to them to secure their votes and their £££’s in the tills (probably not paid tax on it either!).
I would avoid the area like the plague if a cable car ever got permission. Enjoy the gorge while you can folks!
03/07/2012 at 20:05
Emma
i like the idea of a fernicular railway. If it was in sympathy with the surroundings it would be a great attraction
03/07/2012 at 21:16
Tim
“Tim, in your case ‘Yes’ you are blinkered.”
Claire, could you please tell everyone if you think the NT are blinkered?
03/07/2012 at 21:27
SpencerL
Hey Maggs, your right wing rants against chavs are a bit much considering you seem to make your living supplying booze to pissheads!
04/07/2012 at 07:23
Maggs
My comments are far from right wing, merely the well observed comments of modern society and as for supplying booze to ‘pissheads’, well I take it you drink alcohol so does that make you a pisshead also?
04/07/2012 at 09:00
SpencerL
I’m merely pointing out that one of the defining features of those you dismiss as chavs is their propensity to get pissed and someone who makes a profit from helping them do so is on very dubious ground when criticising them.
04/07/2012 at 11:53
Womble
Wot a load of classist clap trap. I drink but not to get pissed and i’m working class btw. As for the cable car idea, a firm NO vote from me on aesthetic grounds
04/07/2012 at 13:44
Sean
Are there any detailed plans of where the actual cable car might cross the gorge?
04/07/2012 at 20:06
heritageaction
Sean, see the website link in the article.
05/07/2012 at 09:44
Blue82
Are we saying the working classes shouldnt enjoy all this country has to offer?. Why should the countryside and our historical heritage be the reserve of the educated middle and upper classes?. It should be available to all and enjoyed by all without any class barriers.
06/07/2012 at 21:23
Claire
*Claire, could you please tell everyone if you think the NT are blinkered?*
Well of course they are by definition. They are a body representing something therefore they have a pre determined agenda that they must adhere to. Nothing wrong with the National Trust (I used to be a member in fact)
Organizations will always have an agenda and therefore blinkered to thinking outside of that agenda as without blinkers, they have no direction to follow.
Individuals however, are and should be free from any agenda as they are able to choose their own paths to walk down. This is why some people become Neo Nazis and others anti fascists, to use two extremes.
We don’t walk down one path, we come across many junctions of decision on our life journey, including the right to choose to go back down the path we have followed and start again at some other point of the journey.
With regards the cable car, i’m not saying i’m in favor, i’m not saying I support it, I am however saying that for me, I can see both sides of the argument and have yet to choose which path to go down, as I’m not blinkered to exploring all avenues before making my choice.
06/07/2012 at 22:10
Tim
So because the NT is dedicated to protecting national assets for ever, for everyone and doesn’t give equal sympathy to proposals for private exploitation of the assets it’s blinkered….
Right.
07/07/2012 at 11:30
Claire
Correct! Finally got there in the end………
07/07/2012 at 11:49
Tim
Hardly. More like the morality of a metal detectorist in drag.
07/07/2012 at 12:08
Claire
So now you descent to the level of puerile sexist comments….sad sad man!
07/07/2012 at 12:18
Tim
Not at all, I merely pointed out what most people know, that a succession of metal detectorists come here in disguise, blissfully unaware that they are totally obvious. Nothing sexist about that.
07/07/2012 at 12:22
Claire
So now I am accused of being a Metal Detectorist?. And please tell me how metal detecting came into a discussion regarding a cable car over cheddar Gorge?
07/07/2012 at 13:19
heritageaction
“So now I am accused of being a Metal Detectorist?”
You haven’t been.
On the other hand, metal detectorists frequently claim conservation bodies are blinkered for protecting heritage from their private exploitation so any confusion would be understandable.
No more on this please.
Further discussion of this point is unlikely to be profitable.
07/07/2012 at 18:23
Greg
Has anyone else noticed the bloke in red half way up the cliff?. Look at the bottom left of the image, just above where the road bends to the right. What’s he doing there? Is rock climbing legal in the gorge?
08/07/2012 at 16:42
Sparticus
Well spotted. It looks like he is rock climbing as you can see his gear is at the bottom by the road.
Anyone observant enough to spot the second climber???
09/07/2012 at 07:58
heritageaction
Debs, Claire, Maggs, Emma, Womble, Sean, Blue82, Liz,, Greg, Sparticus, Jonty etc – we are aware you are the same person, using the same computer, and a metal detectorist keen to disrupt a conservation website. You make our case perfectly, as have your many predecessors.
13/07/2012 at 16:28
Epona
Nice to see my bullshit detector’s still working. Btw I was at the gorge last week (quite empty in the rain) and the placing of any cable car would be a critical thing. I’d argue the base of the gorge is basically past redemption already. There’s more sweet / cider / chipshops visible than gorge. I bet even if they put a car in, people wouldn’t stray more than 20 ft from the top of it. Whether anyone ‘needs’ onethere other than to make a profit is another matter.