Honister Slate Mine has been granted permission for a 1,035-metre long zip wire in the Lake District – subject to conditions being agreed.

The Lake District National Park Authority’s development control committee voted seven to three in favour of the plan.

Planning officers had recommended refusal on the grounds that while the zip wire would not impact on the landscape, the people using it would.

However, some committee members argued that Honister was heavily industrialised and not a place where visitors sought peace and tranquillity.

The mine, on a remote mountain pass between Borrowdale and Buttermere, had previously been refused permission for a zip wire in 2011 and 2012.

The latest project will involve a wire from high up on Honister Crag running to an “intermediate” landing point further down the mountainside.

From there, a shorter run would take users down to the mine car park - to be used by organisations working with disabled people.

In quiet periods, the zip wire will also transport quarried slate from an inaccessible area - a method used in the 1920s.

Jan Wilkinson, widow to the late Mark Weir, who came up with the original zip wire idea but never saw it come to fruition, fought back tears of joy. She said: “I am elated, absolutely elated. I am so pleased for the Lake District and Cumbria. It’s been a long road, 10 years in the making.”

Mr Weir’s brother Joseph, who runs slate operations, said: “It’s very emotional - this is for Mark.”

But the zip wire scheme was not without its critics.

The Friends of the Lake District, the Cumbria branch of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, Cumbria Wildlife Trust, The Wainwright Society, and the Open Spaces Society all strongly objected on the grounds of impact on landscape character and loss of tranquillity.

Committee member Geoff Davies, of Braithwaite, said the landscape must always come first.

Speaking at yesterday’s meeting, he added: “I don’t buy the idea that young people don’t want to climb hills anymore. It’s clear that the zip wire infrastructure is significant, and it’s the activity I am concerned about.”

No objections were received, however, from Cumbria County Council highways authority, Cumbria Police, air traffic control or the Ministry of Defence.