Our long-term plans for Crummock Water, Chapelhouse Reservoir and Overwater
We've been working with key stakeholders including the Environment Agency, Natural England, Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA), National Trust, landowners, local authorities and other interest groups to develop long-term plans that would maintain access for visitors, while sensitively returning these water bodies back to a more natural state.
There's still a long way to go before any work begins, we're still in the early stages for Ennerdale and further along with our plans for Crummock Water, Chapelhouse Reservoir and Overwater. We've held several rounds of community drop-in sessions (October 2022, February 2023 and September 2023) to share our initial proposals for the work and answer your queries. If you've attended these sessions, thank you for taking the time to come and see us.
Our next steps
Planning applications for Crummock, Overwater and Chapelhouse have been submitted to the Lake District National Park Authority. The application for Crummock can be viewed by selecting the link below. Once we have the details for Overwater and Chapelhouse we'll update this page with the link.
Key milestone | Crummock | Overwater | Chapelhouse |
---|---|---|---|
Submission of planning application | We're currently working through the feedback from the Planning Application consultation and will provide updated documents to the LDNP which will then be reconsulted on. When any update on the timescales for this are known, we will look to update the website. |
We're in the process of updating the Flood Risk Assessment in line with the updated mapping and modelling from the Environment Agency to allow the planning application to be validated. When any update on the timescales for this are known and a link to the Planning Application is available, we will look to update the website. |
|
Determination period | To be confirmed | To be confirmed | |
Start on site | To be confirmed |
The determination period is the length of time we have allowed for the LDNPA to make a decision. The outcome from the determination period will then influence when we can engage with a contractor and formulate the programme of work. As soon as a contractor has been appointed and their schedule of work agreed, we'll continue to provide updates and key milestone information on this website.
If you didn't manage to make it to our most recent drop-in sessions you can view the material here Updated visual heat maps, which illustrate the current and expected levels are available from the leisure activities area in the drop-down section below.
July 2025 update
Since we submitted our initial planning application to restore Crummock Water to its original state, we've held a series of meetings with the local community to listen to their feedback. We're very grateful to them for taking the time to meet with us.
As a result, we've requested an extension to the Crummock Water planning determination to allow for further technical work and community engagement.
We're now exploring two additional options alongside the current proposal: a lower weir option and an option that specifically addresses reservoir safety requirements. Updated ecology and tree surveys, revised visualisations, and a review of historic lake levels are also underway.
We're preparing some short, non-technical summaries on key topics such as construction, traffic, flood risk, lake levels, and biodiversity and these will be posted on our website a couple of weeks in advance of the public information events which we're looking to hold later this year/early 2026 in Loweswater, Cockermouth and Ireby. We're also finalising a 30-year Landscape and Ecology Management Plan, a Lake Shore Management Plan, and exploring the feasibility of a boardwalk across Park Beck - these will be available on this webpage.
We continue to engage with the Project Steering Group*, Parish Council, landowners and Friends of Crummock and have recently outlined the work we're now going to undertake to review options. Further meetings with other stakeholders will follow.
Updated planning documents will be submitted to the LDNPA in early 2026 following the public information events.
*The Project Steering Group is made up of United Utilities, Natural England, the Environment Agency, National Trust and West Cumbria Rivers Trust.
If you would like to get in touch with any further queries, please use the feedback form