Leisure plan for Astbury Estate could bring a £15m boost
Plans to redevelop the Astbury Estate as one of the region's biggest leisure venues could bring as much as £15m of investment into the county, it has been claimed.
The proposals for the estate, near Bridgnorth, which centre around owners FCFM creating a 'world class' leisure destination, will be considered by planning committee members at Shropshire Council next week.
Councillors are being recommended to approve the plans, which include 275 wooden lodges, a golf course and spa facilities.
Although the council's planning department has confirmed its support for the proposals, there have been local concerns.
Some are worried about the impact the huge development will have on the nature of Eardington, while other have voiced concerns about the safety of added traffic on small country roads.
The National Trust also wrote to the council expressing its own worries about the potential impact of the work on the nearby Dudmaston Hall.
But Shropshire Council's planning team has decided there are no grounds on which the development should be refused.
One of the question marks has surrounded the access to the site off the B4555, but the report recommending the application is approved, written by case officer Richard Fortune, concludes that it is acceptable.
It also says that the extra traffic on the B4555 will be acceptable.
It states: "Whilst the development will be a substantial development for the surrounding area, analysis shows that it will not generate a significant amount of trips compared to the existing number of vehicles already travelling along the B4555."
It adds: "It is not considered that there is material grounds to consider a highways refusal for any of the applications submitted. Shropshire Council as highway authority would need to demonstrate that the B4555 and surrounding Highway network do not have the capacity to support a development of this nature. It is not considered a highway objection could be sustained on this basis."
Concerns have also been raised about the impact of the volume of traffic on some junctions in Bridgnorth, most notably B4555/B4363 and Oldbury Road/Hollybush Road.
Those worries have been dismissed in the officer's report, although it says that no dedicated assessment has been carried out on the junctions.
It states: "Concerns have been raised with regard to capacity on the surrounding network of the cumulative impact of the whole development in particular the impact on the junctions in Bridgnorth, most notably B4555/B4363 and Oldbury Road/Hollybush Road.
"Whilst no specific analysis has been undertaken with regard to capacity at these junction, it is considered that the increase in trips generated by the proposed development compared to the number of existing vehicle movements will not be significant enough to reduce capacity at the junctions within Bridgnorth."
The overall proposal for the development includes building a leisure and spa building, two swimming pools, a farm shop, a function room, restaurant and spa, an outdoor lido pool, tennis courts, bowling greens, a new nine-hole golf course and an 18-hole putting green.
There will also be sets of 135 and 140 holiday let lodges around the 354 acre estate.
In a statement released by FCFM when it announced the plans last December it claimed the development could be worth more than £3.5m a year to the local economy.
It said: “It is anticipated that the customers and guests staying at the resort will have a minimum local spend, off site, of £3.5m per annum within the local economy and, again, the multiplier effect of this will be significant benefitting local bars, restaurants, taxis, petrol stations and tourist attractions, again, this is projected to be a permanent and indexed linked boost the immediate and local economy.”
The report from Shropshire Council outlines how it believes the proposal will benefit the county.
It states: "The Economic growth service are fully supportive of the redevelopment of the existing site to support a new fully developed leisure, hotel and community facility. The proposal signifies the ability to offer a provision that will not only rejuvenate a currently disused golf course operation, but create a facility that supports to drive new visitors to a rural part of the county and support businesses within both the wider visitor economy sector and those benefitting the broader local community.
"The visitor economy sector is one of the most significant within Shropshire and with the broad range of attractions available, high visitor numbers and the value that this brings to the Shropshire economy, this application provides a significant opportunity to support in continued economic growth within this sector. This opportunity also has the potential to create a truly national and even international facility, supporting to develop Shropshire’s position firmly on the map as a destination to visit and stay and delivering increased spend in this locality. Key to this is also the sites ability to support the delivery of jobs from across a range of skill sets, reducing the need for residents to commute outside of the Shropshire area for employment."
A decision on the four applications that comprise the plans will be taken at Shropshire Council's South Planning Committee at Shirehall on Tuesday.
