By joining us as a ‘Play and Explore’ Friend, you will have a year’s free access to all of our lakes across the south west, and also receive an Explorers pack to boost your outdoor adventures. Your donation will help us to continue looking after the lakes and the surrounding countryside, from maintaining footpaths and meadows to developing new play areas that enable more young people to connect with nature.

 ‘Play and Explore’ Friends will receive:

• a welcome pack;
• a parking pass valid at all of our car parks (x1 single, x2 joint and x2 family);
• an Explorer Pack containing a pencil, notepad and 'Little Explorer' badge for each child (see below);
• a gorgeous calendar displaying the lakes across the south west for the upcoming year (sent in autumn for the following year);
• the opportunity to sign-up to our monthly e-newsletter to receive regular updates about our work.

Friendship	Donation	Explorer Pack(s)
Single	£35	1 explorer pack 1 parking permit
Joint	£50	2 explorer packs 2 parking permits
Family	£55	3 explorer packs (please let us know if you have more than 3 children) 2 parking permits A fun '101 Things to do' guide

You will need to submit your car registration numbers

Car parking is a really important source of fundraising for our charity. 

All income from our car parks contributes to the upkeep and enhancement of the lakes for our visitors and wildlife – from conserving important habitats to maintaining your favourite walks.

Most people who use our car parks do pay, but non-payment is an issue at some of our lakes.

For this reason, we installed automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology as a trial at Argal in December 2022. The trial was a success and as a result we have also installed ANPR at Roadford and Siblyback Lakes. 

The ANPR will be operated by Smart Parking on behalf of South West Lakes Trust.

As well as encouraging visitors to pay for parking, we hope that the ANPR technology will help deter fly tipping and other forms of anti-social behaviour.

As a Friend, your car parking permit will not be recognised by the ANPR cameras, which means you will need to submit your vehicle registration number(s) once your application to be a Friend has been completed. If you have a single Friendship, this will be for one car; for joint or family Friendships, this will be up to two cars. Details on how to submit your vehicle registration numbers will be sent to you in your Friend confirmation email.

This information will only be shared with Smart Parking, who will be operating the ANPR on our behalf. Further information on South West Lakes Trust's privacy policy can be accessed here. Further information on Smart Parking’s personal data privacy policy can be accessed here.

Smart Parking will hold your registration until the end of your friendship. After this date your details will be removed from the system and you will not be entitled to free parking.

If at any time during your friendship you change vehicle(s), it will be your responsibility to inform us of these changes so we can update our records.

To join or renew, please click the donate button at the top of this page.

Thank you for your support.