Holiday park expansion refused after 163 objections

Plans to expand a 'luxury' holiday park have been thrown out after 163 objections were registered.

The owners of Overstone Park Resort near Northampton wanted to add 77 holiday units to the 120 that already exist at the site.

They said income from the new lodges would pay for other facilities to be built.

Although planning officers said the plan should be approved, councillors voted to reject it because they felt the site would be over-developed.

Overstone Park was once part of the impressive grounds of a stately home.

In recent years, it has become a leisure resort with holiday accommodation and a golf course.

The owners said the new lodges would pay for a revitalised restaurant, a new gym studio, a refurbished swimming pool and a tennis court.

They applied to build 31 lodges and 46 twin-unit lodges, with extra parking and landscaping.

Among the concerns raised in letters to the council were the visual harm to the area, the degrading of the golf course and the ‘sub-standard’ vehicle access onto the site off of a blind bend.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said many people were worried the proposed twin-unit lodges could have transformed the resort into a caravan park.

Speaking at the planning meeting on behalf of Overstone Park Lodge Owners Association, one man said: “We vehemently reject this application. It’s an overdevelopment of 76 additional properties, which is a 62% increase on the current availability.

“The twin units would... not be visually attractive, sympathetic to local character nor will they establish or maintain a strong sense of place."

Joney Ramirez, from RPS planning, said on behalf of the applicant: “Without the investment resulting from the proposal the business and the site will continue to decline, leading to the potential closure of this valuable resort and loss of jobs.”

She backed up their plans for the twin units, saying they would be ‘luxury lodges’ and would offer a mix of holiday homes on the site.

The Liberal Democrat councillor Sally Beardsworth said: “It’s too big an extension.

“We also have another holiday park in the area with caravans on it, which is expanding as we hear, so do we need caravans on this one?

Councillors decided to reject the application as a result of the perceived overdevelopment of Overstone Park and the inappropriate addition of the twin-unit lodges.

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