PLANS have officially broken cover to create a £14m white water course at Manvers Lake after a planning application was submitted.

The Manvers Lake and Dearne Valley Trust, the charity which manages the site, said that its ‘superb’ water quality had been a deciding factor in the plans.

Permission is now being sought from Rotherham Council to get the green light, whose planning board will weigh up the scheme later this year.

South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service would also use Manvers Lake as a regional training base.

Planning documents, which are now available on the council’s website, show the size of the proposed scheme.

The report states: “The new facility is based on a new channel that runs along the north-east bank of the lake.

“The channel is being cut into the bank along the line of the existing footpath that runs around the lake.

“It is generally ten-metres wide and the pumping station that has four fish friendly axial pumps lifts water from the lake to a height of 3.9 metres and the water then flows down the channel and back into the lake.

“There is a conveyor that lifts the users in their raft or kayak up from the lake to the start of the channel.

“The car park has been extended by 24 bays and there is a new vehicular crossing to the east.”