An alpaca farm less than an hour's drive from Manchester is planning to build glamping pods, giving families the chance to stay over for a short getaway. Lowland Farm, in Westby With Plumptons, Lancashire, already offers visits and farm experiences to families and SEND children.
Now, the family-run businesses hopes to expand its offerings, reports LancsLive. Plans have been submitted to Fylde Borough Council for overnight accommodation on the site.
The farm, located near Blackpool and Lytham St Annes, covers 50 acres of grassland. It also produces hay to feed its animals, which include ponies, donkeys, sheep, chickens and, of course, alpacas. Visitors can meet the alpacas such as Hugo, Herbert, Hector and Huckleberry, attend craft sessions and children's parties, or head out on therapeutic walks.
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According to the planning application, owners Mr and Mrs Traynor want to instal five glamping pods on the farm. A report submitted with the application explains the small enterprise has grown in size steadily over the last decade, with alpaca numbers increasing from three to more than 50.
It says: "The alpacas are farmed for their fleece but in addition, now form part of a ‘farm experience’. The enterprise is now committed to a programme of introducing and increasing the numbers of specialist breeds. Following requests from parents, children of school age started visiting the working farm to allow them to gain an understanding of rural life and encourage their social skills.
"This led onto educational establishments requesting that groups of children attend for education and therapy visits. There are now a number of establishments which bring groups of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) these include Lytham St. Annes High School and Progress Education; in addition, Tower Learning send groups of children too. The group sizes of the children and the extent of their special needs, varies greatly."
As well as this, the farm holds an annual family camp which is organised by a separate group who spend a week at the site with family with young children staying in tents. There, they bring a bouncy castle and envelop themselves in traditional outdoor family activities.
Explaining the reason for the further development, the report explains: "This small family enterprise has a great sense of commitment at their heart and hence has built strong customer relationships. Their dedication and deep genuine understanding of the various users’ needs has resulted in a natural and steady growth of the business.
"Parents and leads of special needs groups comment that the hosts’ genuine understanding of their children'’ needs/behavioural habits allows them to relax more, which in turn calms the children. The expansion in uptake of the current activities/experiences has led to enquiries from attendees as to whether overnight stays could be offered.
"These enquiries have come from parents and leaders, of both the special needs and mainstream groups and families. Many have suggested that extending their stay on site overnight would be extremely beneficial. The parents and leaders of the special needs groups advise that such a facility would further enhance the current benefits of the visits, especially the children with autism; the site is small, quiet and calming.
"The parents of mainstream children also state that they would be interested in staying on the site as part of an extension of the package farm experience package currently offered. They believe it would help them encourage their children away from electronic devices and immerse themselves in the natural environment; such benefits have already been noted with the annual ‘family camp’.
If approved, it is expected the pods would be in use in warmer half of the year and would be solely used by families. A decision will be made by Fylde Borough Council in due course.
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