'It would be chaotic' - Further opposition against plans to expand Northampton holiday park

Proposals to build another 76 new lodges in Overstone Park were taken to appeal with the planning inspectorate after West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) voted to throw out the plans at a meeting last year.

Members felt the plans, which attracted around 150 objections from members of the public, would be an overdevelopment of the open rural setting and would harm the character of the area.

Since the park’s decision to appeal the ruling in a bid for permission for the development, lodge owners have spoken out against the plans once again. They voiced fears of overdevelopment and "vandalism” of the area.

Colin Richardson, 86, has owned a lodge in Overstone Resort for three years as a second home. He shared concerns voiced by the authority’s planning committee that the 46 ‘twin-unit’ lodges would be out of place next to the existing two-storey properties and would make the resort look like a “trailer park”.

He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the large increase in lodges, almost doubling the current 115 on-site, would cause many problems for people who currently own one of the properties as a second home.

Mr Richardson said: “We are implacably opposed to the creation of small single-story pre-constructed buildings that are effectively static homes. People will say you’re being a nimby. Well, if we don’t look after our backyard who’s going to?

“One of the biggest problems is going to be parking. The visitor and overflow parking facilities are totally lost in the proposed new development. It is the current run-down condition of the club that makes many people suspicious of the owner’s declared intention to create a luxury facility.

“I think there would definitely be a number of people who will leave [if the appeal is approved] because there’s been a general decline in the standards of what’s there.”

Peter Davis, 76, chair of the Overstone Park Lodge Owners Association, said that the resort’s residents were prepared to support expansion plans in some form. However, they could not back the current proposals due to the number of additional homes and the appearance of the smaller twin lodges.

He added: “If it became some sort of holiday park then with all the stresses and the strains I could see it potentially reducing the value of people’s properties. I don’t think we’d have a mass exodus of people leaving, but some would give up and go.

“The disruption here generally would be chaotic – it would be carnage for quite a few years and in the meantime people still have to live here and accept all this. It would just destroy the basic elements of the retirement homes we bought into.”

However, not all users of the golfing resort share the same sentiment. One Overstone Park member submitted a letter in favour of the appeal, stating that the “tired” facilities need the investment that would come from the expansion.

They wrote: “Failure to enable and approve this planning request will ensure further decline. The ambition of the owner is clear to invest, improve and halt the decline and make this a viable profitable business based on growth and attracting more clients.”

The applicant previously explained that the business had been in decline for more than a decade and could potentially lead to the park’s closure. It said the increase in value from the new lodges would go towards rebranding the resort as a luxury destination by investing in state of the art amenities and a fully refurbished clubhouse.

According to the appeal’s website, all comments from the appellant and local authority were due in March. The planning inspector will assess the appeal claims through a written hearing. No decision date has been revealed at this point.

Overstone Park Resort has been contacted for comment.