At a hearing examining the proposed windfarm development at Berrier Hill on the edge of the Lake District National Park, an environmental expert said the development would “gravely diminish the quality of views into the Lake District National Park.”

Sir Martin Holdgate, a former director general of the International Committee for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources said the proposals would insert a massive artificial structure into a landscape of high scenic value, intruding into and demeaning the eastward views from the Blencathra Fells and blighting the landscape of a wider area of Eden.

“I believe very strongly that the Berrier Hill windfarm would have a very seriously detrimental impact on the adjacent national park landscape, as well as on the countryside that is itself of high scenic quality, and for that reason I urge rejection of the proposals, despite my general commitment to renewable energy nationally and in Cumbria.”

Penrith and the Border MP David Maclean, mountaineers Sir Chris Bonington and Doug Scott, and Cumbrian author and television presenter Sir Melvyn Bragg have all spoken out against the plans to erect a nine-turbine windfarm on the Greystoke Estate, less than a mile from the border of the Lake District National Park.

The outcome of the Inquiry, which has been the victim of a series of delays, will not be known for several months yet.