Up to £4m will be needed to clear the lakes at Cannon Hall  of silt and restore features including the walled garden, greenhouses and paths.

The Save Our Lakes campaign was launched in July by the Friends of Cannon Hall and funding will be sought from the Heritage Lottery to restore the lakes and make improvements to the surrounding areas.

There are also plans to include the creation of an outdoor classroom and activities for schools and families, Coun Linda Burgess said.

Coun Burgess said the lakes had become silted up naturally over a number of years and at the project would look at ways of preventing it happening again in the future.

"Most of the people are aware of the beautiful lakes we have at Cannon Hall.

"When there is heavy rainfall, there is a massive amount of water that's coming down and dredging a lot of silt down from very high up.

"There have been some investigations in to what could be done, though it will be a massive cost.

"The council doesn't have the budgets to do that kind of work and so there is this campaign that's been started."

Coun Burgess said a bid for funding would need to be made to make sure the lakes are improved so they are visually more attractive but also a better habitat for a range of wildlife.

"It's not as simple as getting a dredger in but clearly there is a lot of work to do to clear the lakes of rubbish and there is work to be done to make sure that any silting up in the future is potentially addressed."

She said the restoration works would help increase the number of visitors to Cannon Hall and the lakes needed to be in a good state in order for that to happen.

"It's a big scheme and potentially very costly and will need a bid to the Heritage Lottery but that does have to be supported by other funding, which is why fund-raising events have been taken place.

"They need to see that the community is absolutely wanting this to happen and the Save our Lakes campaign has got a lot of support in Cawthorne."