So I've found a lake

[NoNameNoNumber]

I've no idea who the land owner is but I'd like permission to play on it... Slip n slide, kicker and a couple of jet skis... There are no towns for miles and the nearest houses are probably a mile away...

Access is via a country road up to a locked gate. There's a trodden path around the gate and there are a few signs of people being there at some point... There's no signage or clues as to who the land power may belong to though.

Obviously if we were gonna just go for a swim and have a BBQ that'd be one thing but we'd like to put the skis on and muck about legitimately of course!

Can anybody offer any advice?

Many thanks GD

 

[Roar87]

The Earth belongs to us all mate, go enjoy yourself

 

[eatcustard]

If it was my lake, I would shoot you and feed you to the ducks.

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

My sentiments entirely, until the old bill crush the ski's!

 

[arknor]

don't you have a river near you? there's always people on jet skis whenever I cycle along the tyne

 

[Edrof]

Can the land registry dudes help for this?

 

[Sliver]

Contact the local council, pretty sure they could put you in touch with the land owner.

 

[jsmoke]

Is there not a local town/village/shop to ask in. Give us a location and we can work it out.

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Can the land registry dudes help for this?

Yeah maybe, looks like £3 for a search

don't you have a river near you? there's always people on jet skis whenever I cycle along the tyne

Yeah but its the Trent and the gypsies wash in it upstream of us.

Contact the local council, pretty sure they could put you in touch with the land owner.

I'll try them in the morning

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

It would appear said lake is owned by British Gypsum... Hmm I'll have to get an email off to them

 

[bitslice]

They are just going to say no, probably don't want to be liable.

Use it, then wait to get kicked off, no harm done.

 

[kwerk]

It would appear said lake is owned by British Gypsum... Hmm I'll have to get an email off to them

Is it a natural lake or a filled in old quarry full of who knows what if its owned by them?

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

The thing is we wanna drop the skis on it... We'll have a paddle about etc regardless and like you say, worse case scenario they kick us off... Putting the skis on is iffy though without permission...

 

[[TW]Fox]

It would appear said lake is owned by British Gypsum... Hmm I'll have to get an email off to them

Don't even waste your time - members of the public drowning and otherwise causing issues in flooded mining excavations (Which is what many lakes are and likely this one is if it's owned by them) are a constant problem for companies like British Gypsum, so why would they want to take the risk by saying 'Sure, come jetski all you want'?

Who would you even email that wouldn't just ignore it/forget to forward it on/etc?

 

[dowie]

lol you're not going to get a reasonble size company to say yeah sure thrash about on jet skis on our lake... there might be some liability issues there and even if there aren't they're not going to want to even consider the possibility just in case there might be - easiest thing for them to say is, erm, no

go find another lake, preferably one owned by some farmer or individual landowner and then do your best to charm/convince/bribe them to let you use it for a few days of summer activities

 

[[TW]Fox]

Also drop them an email and ask if you can use the empty British Gypsum office carpark after hours for some drifting and casual car racing, see what they say to that as well

 

[dowie]

fankly if you can afford a couple of jet skis then you can afford your own lake, agricultural land isn't that expensive and stuff like forestry, rough land with random lakes etc.. is even cheaper. Plenty of people buy plots of land for conservation stuff, all sorts of things. There are other benefits like inheritance tax relief etc.. for investing in some land.

get a few acres with a lake on it and you can do all that stuff without anyone bothering you, even if it is general breaching some planning regulations there is still a 30 day rule or something along those lines for change of use... people use the loophole to land aircraft on temporary airstrips even

 

[Rroff]

Don't even waste your time - members of the public drowning and otherwise causing issues in flooded mining excavations (Which is what many lakes are and likely this one is if it's owned by them) are a constant problem for companies like British Gypsum, so why would they want to take the risk by saying 'Sure, come jetski all you want'?

Who would you even email that wouldn't just ignore it/forget to forward it on/etc?

Thats the other thing with bodies of water like that - if it is a reservoir or ex-mining site there are potentially hazards that members of the public might not be aware of.

 

[D.P.]

Just go to a lake in public land

 

[NoNameNoNumber]

Just go to a lake in public land

I'm hoping that is what this may have become. The last details I can find show it belonging to BG but that was when it was a quarry... all signage etc has been removed as has the quarry house (huge pile of rubble)

Buying a lake isn't really viable... We'd be happy between us to rent one though if we could find a friendly millionaire

As mentioned above, BG are almost certain to tell us to do one but I'd at least like to ask... They may not even own all of it IDK... There are several lakes grouped here. Even the smallest would suit us!