Not sure how I feel about this, personally. Crich is generally a rather quiet, unspoilt area. Aside from the tramway museum (which isn’t exactly bursting with guests the same way a water park would be), there’s not a lot there other than the natural scenery and Crich Stand (a large war memorial that looks over the quarry).
As others have said, it’d need some pretty hefty local infrastructure investment. The roads aren’t in bad condition, but they’re not really built for much traffic. Something like this could easily choke up the village and immediate surrounding areas. Cromford, Peak Junction and Matlock are already hell on Earth to drive through as soon as the sun comes out. Most of the Peaks just isn’t designed for mass road traffic.
Of course it’d be great to see the quarry put to good use. It’s a huge blot on the landscape at present. And I do think it could have a large appeal as an attraction. But I don’t know, something just doesn’t feel in-keeping about this. I do find myself agreeing a little with the locals that it seems out of place. It’s a bit “corporate” in its approach (water park and a big multi-story hotel). We’re not talking about slapping a theme park on a piece of industrial wasteland next to a city. This is something in a fairly rural surrounding which already has plenty of impressive natural landscape (for reference I grew up, and a lot of my family still live, within a 20 minute drive from Crich).
Center Parcs Sherwood is a little different in my opinion. While it is located by the forest, the area around it is generally fairly unremarkable. Farmers fields with some decent A roads linking it to a major town not too far away (Mansfield). It’s not quite the same as the Peak District.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get stuck in planning debates for some time…
To me, the old quarry near Snitterton, next to Matlock would have probably been a much more logical location. It’d be in the same sort of area, but would be much better for access and amenities/services. It’d be closer to built up civilisation while probably still set out enough to create the nature park feel they seem to want to go for, but without intruding on a more untouched rural area. I think part or all of that site has already been set aside for housing though, which may be a contributing factor in this other location being considered.
