THE man spearheading plans to increase the size of the Lake District is confident the scheme will get the go ahead.

The proposal, submitted by charity Friends of the Lake District, would increase the size of the park by around 155 square kilometres, or six per cent.

It incorporates the Furness and Cartmel peninsulas, the estuaries of the rivers Duddon, Leven and Kent, Millom Without and the area between Silecroft and Grange-over-Sands.

Four years ago the boundaries were extended into the foot hills off Yorkshire and Lancashire, but after the Prime Minister’s recent pledge of an extra 400,000 hectares of English countryside to be protected by 2030, a further expansion looks likely.

The announcement by Boris Johnson has put a spring in the step of Douglas Chalmers, chief executive of Friends of the Lake District.

"We did our work on this during the summer and now we are putting our application into Natural England to make things happen," he said.

"We were approached by the local parish councils and worked with the local community when we commissioned our independent report on expansion.

"So effectively Natural England is now waiting for guidance from Government and the Glover report."

The independent review, led by writer Julian Glover, calls for new powers, more funding and a greater focus on the environment for our protected landscapes.

"We said already to the Prime Minister that there is a historical precedent for this version of the national park when the lines were first drawn in the 1940s," said Mr Chalmers.

"The areas we want to extend into at Silecroft and Grange-over-Sands was meant to be in the national park originally. We have done the research work and so saving the Government and Natural England a lot of money if they want to pick this project up from us.”

Asked how confident he was of this going through, Mr Chalmers said: "A lot depends on the resources available during this time. There are other areas in the UK also going for this, but we think we have the strongest case. Natural England would have less to do, as we have done all the groundwork for them, so we have the strongest case, strong public support and the historical precedent.

"We think we will get to the front of the queue."

A spokesperson for Natural England said: “We will look at all cases for extending including the Lake District. We will have to balance this with different planning processes.”