New outdoor adventure course planned for popular beauty spot

A new woodlands adventure course for youngsters will be built next to a popular beauty spot in Littleborough.

Hollingworth Lake will get a nets course, suspended 2m in the air, which will give children a chance to ‘climb, roll, bounce and play’ with planning permission now approved. Rochdale Borough Council’s plan will see ‘under-utilised’ land next to Pavilion café transformed into the new nets course for children from six-years-old and upwards.

The country park, which attracts thousands of visitors each year, has recently welcomed an RSPCA Centre, a sensory garden and a café.

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The target market for the new course is families, school children, young families and youth groups. The facility will can also cater SEND pupils, planning documents confirm.

Planning papers highlighted that the development will be an above ground nets course, not high ropes, which are higher and require participants to be secured and clipped onto the course. The security of the course is via nets enclosing the whole course.

As well as the nets course, activities will also be provided under the structure at ground level. The council believes this new adventure course would provide a new visitor experience for the growing number of people being drawn to Hollingworth Lake.

The intention is to combine the adventure area with the outdoor education and forest skills learning within the country park.

Coun Sue Smith, cabinet member for communities and cooperation at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “Hollingworth Lake is one of our borough’s most loved attractions, with its beauty and tranquillity drawing thousands of locals and tourists every year.

“As