CONTROVERSIAL plans to build holiday lodges in a unique woodland outside Great Malvern have been resubmitted to the district council.
The Three Counties Agricultural Society has returned with an application to build 40 holiday lodges and a small reception building within Langdale Wood off Blackmore Park Road.
It comes just two months after the charity’s plans to construct 50 lodges and a larger reception office were thrown out by Malvern Hills District Council’s southern area planning committee.
The authority’s officers had recommended approval.
The original plans were strongly opposed by Sharon Taylor of Meadow Road who founded the Save Langdale Wood Facebook page and launched an online petition which received nearly 1,600 signatures.
On hearing the new plans Mrs Taylor set up another petition against the development she feared would put businesses and wildlife in jeopardy.
“We expected the society to be back with another plan which is hugely disappointing.
“The plans are still going to affect the ecology of the woodland as well as the local businesses which are already struggling.
“The community has always supported the Three Counties Society but there is other land they could build on.
“It does not seem like the plan will go away but I will battle on and fight until the last minute.”
Chiefs at the town’s civic society who opposed the original application say they are yet to discuss the new plans.
However chairman Clive Hooper anticipated the group would once again be objecting.
“There would be ten fewer lodges but all the environmental arguments which the civic society and residents have made concerning the previous failed application still apply,” he said.
“We still contend there are other areas within the Three Counties Showground site where such a development could take place without the serious environmental impact which would occur if the lodges were built in Langdale Wood.”
A statement from the Three Counties Agricultural Society said: “The reasons for refusal were the amount of lodges and the size and scale of the reception building.
“We have therefore addressed these by reducing the number of lodges to 40 and reduced the size of the reception building by about 50 per cent to that of a regular woodland lodge.
“We are hoping for a favourable outcome to our resubmitted application to secure the long-term future of the Three Counties Agricultural Society.”
Visit https://tinyurl.com/yc282zzr to sign Mrs Taylor’s petition.
