Ski centre must learn (From Bucks Free Press)

Ski centre must learn

10:22am Friday 5th June 2009 in Search

I READ with interest the article in last week’s BFP about the recent refusal of planning permission of the proposed ski centre redevelopment, which included a quote from the applicant Snowdome, that Wycombe District Council “seem totally tied up in the bureaucracy of the planning system”.

If by this, Snowdome mean that they were required to provide a planning application of the same standard that everyone else has to, then yes I would agree with them.

While the planning system is complex, it exists to protect the environment for the benefit of residents, and I for one know Wycombe is a better place because of it.

The prospect of a new, real snow indoor ski centre and ice rink is very exciting, but it has to be in accordance with planning polices.

In December 2007 our Planning Committee indicated support for a ski slope development, provided that a satisfactory legal agreement was entered into.

Unfortunately, the applicants were unable to complete the legal agreement as requested and then amended the proposed building, making it wider and increasing its visual impact.

The buildings would be located on a prominent hillside site which is designated an Area of Attractive Landscape and contains some trees that are part of an Ancient Woodland.

The ski slope building would have been 100m long, 29m wide and between 8.5 and 13m tall – the height of a four-storey building.

The main reason for refusal related to the impact of the development on the landscape and the failure to find a legal mechanism to secure the removal of the building in the event that the ski business failed. The prospect of such a large ski slope building being left vacant, and possibly derelict, in such a location was simply not acceptable.

Many major developments have come forward, gone through community consultation, been granted planning permission and are now being built in the time that the Snowdome application has been under consideration.

So my challenge to Snowdome, is to learn the lessons of these other schemes and to work with us to create a development that we can all be proud of and that is sympathetic to the local area’s planning policies and needs.

Cllr Jean Teesdale, Wycombe District Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Sustainability.