A CAMPAIGN to stop 27 giant wind turbines being erected between the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District national parks has moved up a gear.

Each turbine would stand higher than St Paul's Cathedral and the wind farm would straddle 7km of open countryside.

Eric Robson, the Radio 4 broadcaster and chairman of Cumbria Tourist Board, said it would ruin one of the nation's most precious landscapes and set a dangerous precedent.

The turbines would stand on a narrow strip of land between the two national parks at Whinash.

The wind farm promoters describe it as a pivotal planning application.

"We agree," said Mr Robson, "If this wind farm is allowed to go ahead in so sensitive an area it would be open season in any other part of the uplands."

The Cumbria Tourist Board, and its 2,000-plus members, will lodge its formal objections at a public inquiry in April.

The board has stressed it is not opposed to renewable energy in principle, but believes the wind farm, which would be visible from the M6 motorway at the "gateway" to the Lake District, could harm tourism - the county's biggest industry.

"The Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales are world-class, cherished landscapes which are loved by all and we want to protect them," said Mr Robson.

"The Lake District was recently voted the finest landscape in Britain. But from both of those landscapes, the view would be dominated by the constant movement of turbine blades, and represent one of the biggest industrial developments in Britain."

He said tourism was worth £1bn a year to Cumbria and the turbines would stand at its front door.

"This industrial site would be the first thing visitors to Cumbria, travelling along the M6 or West Coast main line would see," he stressed.

In several surveys of visitor attitudes carried out by the Cumbria Tourist Board, the "visual peace" of Lakeland is ranked as a top five reason for people coming to the area.

A poll by YouGov in 2004 showed that the Lake District had the "most inspiring scenery" in the country.

Only this month, the Lake District was named as the UK's most outstanding area of natural beauty and is also considered a top 50 destination in the world by National Geographic magazine.

A pre-inquiry meeting into the application will take place on Monday at the Shap Wells Hotel, Shap, Cumbria.

The Yorkshire Dales National Park, Eden District Council, Cumbria County Council, South Lakeland District Council, and the Lake District National Park Authority are also objecting to the plan.