FOLLOWING a mini-airport, three trout fisheries, a mini-dam and Wild West waterwheel, an area of County Durham could get a new feature on the landscape - a 70-metre ski slope.
Businessman Les Smith has bought the ski slope for an undisclosed fee from a Willington leisure park for his trout fishery, at Knitsley Mill, near Consett.
He has applied to Derwentside District Council for permission to build the slope as the centrepiece of his plans to turn his restaurant and trout fishery into an activities area.
He wants to build a fourth fishing lake, an outdoor pursuits centre, 12 two-bedroom log cabins and a grass air strip for light aircraft which already fly from the site.
His plan is for corporate bodies, schools and other organisations to use the centre as an outdoor activities site that would include the use of a 100-acre wood.
The entrepreneur's company, Knitsley Mill Leisure, has been dogged by protests since Mr Smith created his first trout lake in 1993 by rebuilding a medieval dam on a tributary of the River Wear.
Various environmentalist groups, including the Council for the Protection for Rural England and the Durham Wildlife Trust, have argued the area should be left alone.
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