A second bid to create a brown trout fish farm at a Lake District tarn has been refused.

In March, plans by Robert Taylor-Hughes to create an angling facility and eco-friendly fish farm were turned down by Lake District National Park planners.

Now a separate application to create a small agricultural building at the same site at Borwick Fold Tarn, off Chapel Lane, Crook, has been unanimously refused.

In the latest application, the aim of the building would be to provide low-level fish rearing and using the ponds to grow them to full size for consumption.

Eight letters of support were received and Natural England did not raise any objections, the meeting heard.

The building was described as only 21 per cent of the size allowed under permitted development rights.

However, some residents strongly opposed the development, as did the Friends of the Lake District, and both Crook and Winster, and Staveley With Ings parish councils.

Papers before the committee described the area as having an intimate, rural and peaceful appearance with a strong sense of tranquillity.

Area planner Ben Long said there was a concern about the effect a new building would have on the landscape and character of a World Heritage Site.

But Mr Taylor-Hughes, whose family farms at Witherslack, said a building for agricultural use was appropriate for the location and complied with policies.

He said it would be smaller, further away from the road and in a more discreet location than a nearby stand-alone agricultural building.

Mr Taylor-Hughes said its impact had been exaggerated and its benefits underplayed.

The meeting was told he had lost £800,000 as a result of the first refusal and planned to take legal action.

Mr Taylor-Hughes said: “I do not want to be forced down this route. The revised proposal has been submitted in good faith as a constructive response to the refusal of the previous application.

"My family are four generations in the national park and still own and operate a 250-acre livestock farm in Witherslack.”

Peter Allen, deputy chairman of the national park, said the impact was a matter of opinion but he saw it as detrimental.

Member Mark Kidd said: “I hate to stand on people’s dreams and business aspirations but we have to come back to what we are here for as a national park, which is to conserve the landscape.”

Member Hugh Branney said: “The benefits certainly do not outweigh the impact and harm to the setting and environment.”