Newsletters

3 March 2010 - Horkesley Park Application No 090231 nears boiling point! (pdf 30Kb)

Since I last wrote to you in December there have been a number of developments concerning Horkesley Park.

• Buntings have now responded on the outstanding questions from the Highways Agency with a report of over 300 pages. This is now being studied by the Highways Agency, Essex Highways and Suffolk Highways and we await sight of their responses to Colchester Borough Council.

• Colchester Borough Council has appointed a firm of Planning Consultants, Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners, to assist them with their review of certain aspects of the Horkesley Park Application. We sent Nathaniel Lichfield a copy of our original document setting out our reasons for objecting to Horkesley Park. We believe that they have now sent in their report to the CBC but this is not yet in the Public Domain and we don’t know whether it is helpful or not to our cause.

• The CBC has put a lot more documents from Buntings on the CBC web site (www.colchester.gov.uk) which you can see if you look them up under the Application No 090231. One document presents a very distorted picture (in our view) of Public Support for the Application. We have written in protest to this and have shown that there is about a 3:1 level of Objection if only the proper letters of support and objection are taken into account. This letter is also on the CBC web site.

There is every indication that the latest Application will come before the Planning Committee of the Council very soon.

We will need the maximum SVAG presence at this Council meeting when it happens.

In order to prepare for this, we have decided to call a Meeting of SVAG membership and others who are in opposition to the Horkesley Park Proposal in:

Little Horkesley Village Hall on March 25th at 7.00pm.

We very much hope that you will be able to come and give us your full support. After nearly nine years it looks as if the whole issue is finally coming to a head!

3 February 2010 - Developments on the Application (pdf 20KB)
We have been advised that Colchester Borough Council has appointed Nathaniel Lichfield and Partners (NLP) as Consultants to assist them with consideration of various aspects of the Horkesley Park Proposal including the Retail Statement, the Socio Economic statement and the Tourism Business Case.

15 December 2009 - There remains no date to hear this Application as Buntings still have not submitted the information required (pdf 24Kb)
Colchester Borough Council Planning Office are still waiting for answers to questions raised by the Highways Agency in May 2009 and various other issues raised by the CBC. We have written to all Councillors on the Planning Committee again to remind them of the key issues about which we are concerned. A copy of this letter is available here (pdf 28Kb)

1 November 2009 - There is still no date to hear this Application (pdf 21KB)
I last wrote to you in September on the Horkesley Park developments. Since then there have been very few developments in the public domain. We continue to keep in close touch with the Colchester Borough Council Planning Office.

18 September 2009 - No date set for hearing the Application. (pdf 20Kb)
There has not been much to report on the Horkesley Park developments for some weeks but we continue to be very active on your behalf.

1 May 2009 - The deadline for letters to CBC is now past. The planning department are preparing their planning report for Councillors. (pdf 34Kb)

Thank you all for your hard work in the last few weeks. In particular, the Committee and I would like to thank everyone who has written a letter of objection to Colchester Borough Council, and everyone who turned up in their cars or on foot at the Easter Monday Rally and made such a powerful point about what Horkesley Park might mean to all of us! It was a huge success and made excellent headlines!

The deadline for letters to CBC is now passed, and the Council is still counting. At the last estimate, we believe that well over 940 individual and original letters of objection had been received and only about 450 in support. The letters – some of which are extensive and deeply argued – can be read on the CBC website (www.colchester.gov.uk/planning ). Everyone who wrote a letter should receive a response from CBC in the next few weeks; if you do not receive a response, do please check the website and see that your letter has been received and correctly logged as an objection.

We have had a very successful poster campaign which can best be judged by the strenuous attempts of others to take them down! Now that the official consultation period is at an end, we have been asked by Colchester Borough Council to remove them from outside houses etc. Please make sure that you do this by May 10th or you may be in breach of local by-laws and subject to possible fines! This should apply on both sides of the County border as we have received a similar request from Babergh District Council. Posters inside houses and cars are not affected if you wish to keep them up. A letter from Mr Vincent Pearce, Planning Services Manager is on the Campaign page of our website.

SVAG’s own detailed letter of objection can now be read on our website Horkesley Park Key Issues page. In order to give real ‘weight’ to our response on your behalf, we engaged the services of Dalton Warner Davis LLP as Planning Consultants and Visitor Attraction Consultants to look at the underlying figures as well as detailed help from our members. In brief the conclusions from our report are as follows:

• The Application is contrary to the whole ethos of government and local planning policy and must be rejected on these grounds alone.
• The Application would compromise the peace and tranquillity of the AONB in a totally unacceptable way.
• No overriding national need has been established for the Application. (Such ‘need’ has to be established for it to receive approval; this has not been done.)
• Over 75% of revenues in the Applicant’s Business Plan come from retail activities. The Application is a retail development and must be treated as such in the assessment of its conformance or otherwise with Planning Law.
• The projection of visitor numbers is grossly overstated. Our expert’s view is that, as a visitor centre, it is unlikely to attract more than 150,000 visitors by its third year of operation.
• Any reasonable estimate for visitor numbers and per capita spend results in massive losses for the Proposal. Horkesley Park is not viable as a Heritage and Conservation Centre.
• We conclude that the Proposal is no more than a thinly disguised attempt to get planning permission for the buildings and infrastructure for a shopping village using the disguise of a visitor attraction.
• Because of the demonstrated lack of financial viability of the Proposal the promised creation of 155FTE jobs on site cannot be relied on in any way. The actual number of new jobs on site is likely to be much less than 100 even when it is mature.
• Second and third order jobs created in the wider economy are not real and cannot be demonstrated. They must be discounted.
• The potential for job creation in itself must not be a reason to override all other planning considerations.
• The Proposal is contrary to national, regional and local policy in respect of traffic issues. The local road infrastructure is not sufficient to cope with the influx of the Applicant’s predicted 480,000 visitors per annum.
• The Application would generate at least an additional 3000 tonnes of carbon dioxide per annum from visitors’ car journeys alone. The Applicant has not assessed the overall carbon footprint of the development.
• There are serious architectural shortcomings in the Application which have health and safety implications.

We encourage you to read the SVAG Response in full. The appendices include the Dalton Warner Davis report, the expert analyses of the tourism potential of Horkesley Park by experienced independent tourist consultants, and an analysis of the Buntings’ business plan by two SVAG members who have senior positions in the Financial Sector.

You will also be pleased to know that CBC has received letters of objection from the following organisations:

• Parish Councils of Little Horkesley, Great Horkesley, Stoke-by-Nayland, Boxted, Langham, Nayland with Wissington, and Leavenheath
• Babergh District Council
  The Environment Agency
• Natural England
• The National Trust
• Gainsborough’s House
• The Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Joint Advisory Committee
• The Dedham Vale Society
• The Colne Stour Association
• Suffolk Preservation Society
• CPRE Essex
• Dr John Constable
• Dr Ronald Blythe
• The Nayland with Wissington Conservation Society
• 20 local farmers
• 32 local small businesses

South Suffolk MP, Tim Yeo, has also come out forcefully against the Application and has requested that it be ‘Called In’ for determination by the Secretary of State. We are also informed that Bernard Jenkin, MP for North Essex will seek to get the Application ‘called in’.

The decision, however, is not made yet. You can still influence it by making your views felt through the democratic process. Please continue to spread the message to your friends and neighbours, and take the time – if you haven’t already – to lobby or write to the following:

• to your local borough councillor, county councillor, and parish councillor
• to your MP:
  Bernard Jenkin MP (North Essex)
  at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA - email: JENKINBC@parliament.uk
  or Bob Russell MP (Colchester)
  at Magdalen Hall, Wimpole Road, Colchester CO1 2DE - email: brooksse@parliament.uk
  or Tim Yeo MP (Suffolk South)
  at the House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA - email: timyeomp@parliament.uk
• to your local newspapers, local radio and local TV

We are in touch with the CBC. The Planning Department are preparing their report for Councillors and we will advise you as soon as we know when it will come before them for determination. When this happens we will need all your support to make our views known! In the unlikely event that they do decide to support it, it would then have to go to the Regional Office of Government (‘Go East’) for a decision which could result in a Public Enquiry. This could take months and we are prepared to fight it all the way!

We have another major event planned in June and will give you details in due course!

Keep up the fight and we will stop this dreadful potential blot on our landscape!

Thank you for all your support
Will Pavry Chairman, Stour Valley Action Group.

Note: We have been told by Mr Daniel Bunting that some of their cattle got out of a field on Easter Monday, where the gate was unfortunately not padlocked. We have reassured him that we do not believe this was a deliberate act by a SVAG member and that we would never condone any such action.

6 March 2009 - New planning application for Horkesley Park Heritage and Conservation Centre
(pdf 137Kb)
Bunting and Sons have re-submitted their Planning Application, number 090231, for their London Road site for the fourth time since April 2001. This Newsletter sets out the chief issues as we see them and some key facts from the Application.
You have a right to see the Proposal in full at the CBC offices in Angel Court, High St Colchester. You can also see details on the Colchester Borough Council website on www.colchester.gov.uk/planning and you can request a copy on CD for which you will have to pay.

1 November 2007 - Status of planning applications (pdf 24Kb)
1 Recent Applications: Brewery and mobile homes for permanent accommodation.
2 Status on Horkesley Park proposal.

23 September 2007 - Buntings recent applications (pdf 31Kb)
Buntings have submitted retrospective Planning Applications for two of their activities on the London Road site that have been on-going for some time; Mobile homes for Permanent Accommodation and Pitfield micro-brewery.
Buntings lost their appeal against a decision by the Babergh District Council in July 2006 requiring them to remove lighting from the Anchor Inn. In their appeal Buntings indicated that they needed the lighting to attract passing trade. Would the same apply to Horkesley Park?

20 April 2007– Buntings announce a series of ‘consultation’ events (pdf 25Kb)
Rosenthal Lecture: In association with the Nayland and Wiston Conservation Society, we are holding a lecture in Nayland Village Hall on Thursday,May 17th at 7.30pm entitled: "Who owns Constable's Country". After six years of existence, this will be our first fundraising event.
e-mail: We are trying to build up our e-mail data base for speed and cost of communication. Please send your e-mail to info@stourvalleyactiongroup.org.uk and we will add you to our list.
Widen the message: Please let your friends and acquaintances see this letter and encourage them to join us. This letter and all our information and how to join is on our web site at www.stourvalleyactiongroup.org.uk.

24 February 2007– Buntings will re-submit again (pdf 28Kb)
Buntings have told us that they are nearly ready to re-submit their planning application for the Horkesley Park Heritage and Conservation Centre. SVAG now has in place village co-ordinators throughout the Stour valley who will be distributing leaflets and posters and we would ask you to help in distributing and displaying these resources.

October 2006 – Latest situation (pdf 10Kb)
A meeting of SVAG members was held in Great Horkesley Village Hall on September 19th 2006 attended by over 120 people from all surrounding villages. Strong opposition for the plans continues to be expressed from a very wide cross-section of the community.

10 April 2006 – Buntings withdraw again (pdf 38Kb)
Bunting’s Application withdrawn on the basis that ‘they want to do further work’. Any re-submitted Application will be treated as a new Application and will therefore be subject to the same consultation process as the September 2005 Application and under a new number.
This includes Highlights of the 2005/6 SVAG campaign. This is a thorough summary of the previous campaign and we encourage you to look at the full text.