Lancaster refuses 144-acre holiday park
Despite the promise of generating £30m GVA for the local economy, Ellel Holiday Village’s plans for a 450-lodge development close to Junction 33 of the M6 have been rejected.
Lancaster City Council’s planning committee voted to refuse the application three years after Ellel submitted plans for a Center Parcs-style destination.
Ellel Holiday Village, a sister business of Lancaster-based M Capital Investment Partners, wants to build an eco-friendly holiday park featuring 450 lodges, a 90-bedroom hotel and a host of amenities including a food hall and an immersive wildlife experience.
The plans have proved unpopular in some quarters. The application has garnered almost 800 letters of objection.
Lancaster City Council’s planning team recommended its planning committee reject the 144-acre scheme due to concerns about a public safety – a high pressure ethylene pipe runs under the site – and the loss of land designated as public open space.
The committee obliged at a meeting yesterday.
M Capital had previously tried to redevelop the site into a garden village of 950 homes before switching to the holiday park plans.
To learn more about the plans, search for application reference 20/01453/OUT on Lancaster City Council’s planning portal.
Architect Stride Treglown, economic consultancy Hatch Regeneris, JLL, landscape architect Randall Thorp, and planner JWPC are working on the scheme.
No expert but you’d think a “high pressure ethylene pipe runs under the site” was a bit of a dealbreaker….if that couldn’t be dealt with why did the developer progress it?
By Sceptic
Why reject it, this would be great for the city and would bring in more tourists, Lancaster is all about students and it just doesn’t seem fair, we need the footfall in the city and it would encourage more shops to open, crazy to reject it !!
By Patricia Arkwright