Blencathra Mountain’s purchase bid by Lakshmi Mittal Sparks Protests

Blencathra Mountain in Cumbria, Britain: Lakshmi Mittal’s bid to buy sparks protest

Blencathra Mountain in Britain was in news in the first week of July 2014 due to bid made by Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal to buy the mountain range. The purchase bid led to protests from the local people who think that this proposal could make the area a playground for the rich.

The Blencathra Mountain was put on the market for bid in May 2014 with 1.75 million pounds asking price by Earl of Lonsdale Hugh Lowther. The funds raised from the sale of this 2676 acre plot of mountain will be used to pay off reported tax of 9 million pounds that Earl owes from his father’s inheritance, who died eight years ago.

Local residents group named as Friends of Blencathra had put a counter bid for the same plot and requested Eden District Court to safeguard the land from private hands.

However, a local media reported that the Earl of Lonsdale accepted the offer from an unnamed party which is ready to pay him the asked price for the mountain. That unnamed party is none but Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of the world’s largest steel making company, ArcelorMittal.

This provoked Friends of Blencathra to lodge protest in order to prevent this deal.

About Blencathra Mountain

Blencathra also called Saddleback is the most northerly mountain in the charming English Lake District of Cumbria, England. This 2848 ft high mountain range was regarded as one of the grandest objects of Lakeland by author Alfred Wainwright and was an inspiration for poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

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