A planning application seeking to build hundreds of homes on the site of the former Camelot theme park will be decided by the government.
Lancashire-based developer Story Homes wants to build an estate of up to 350 homes and a community centre on the now empty land and first applied to Chorley Council in June last year.
Under planning laws, a decision should be issued within 26 weeks but Chorley has failed to do that and Story Homes has now submitted an appeal based on non-determination. That means the matter will instead be dealt with by the Planning Inspectorate – a national level body which is ultimately overseen by Steve Reed, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
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Chorley Council did not issue a full statement when asked by Blog Preston to explain the delay but a spokesperson noted that all the appeal was lodged before all the information had been received from the statutory consultees which would be needed for its planning committee to make a decision.
In its application, the developer describes its plans as a “a landscape-led development, with approximately 55% of the site area provided as green and blue infrastructure including public open space with walking and cycling routes”. It says the majority of existing trees will be retained and there will be significant additional planting, while stating the plans “will also provide a community hub and a package of improvements to the local highways network”.
As well as the new community building, which is described as “providing a flexible multi-functional space for use by community groups and other users for a range of events, meetings, the development promises play facilities for young people in the new neighbourhood and the wider community.
If progressed, the development would have a mixture of detached, semidetached, and mews housing in addition to apartments and Story says that 50% will be classed as affordable.
Camelot first opened to visitors in 1983 and in the mid-90s saw visitor numbers hit 500,000 per year. However, a steady decline followed and owners Prime Resorts announced in 2009 that it had entered receivership and would not reopen that year. It was then sold to the Story Group and was operated from 2009-2012 by Knights Leisure Ltd.
Since then, it has only been used on an occasional basis such as a Halloween scare attraction and has become a frequent target for trespassing and anti-social behaviour, issues which the owner say led to the decision to demolish the last remaining buildings on-site. Story argues the site is no longer viable as a tourism attraction.
Concluding its application, it states: “Overall, it has been demonstrated that not only is the site a suitable and sustainable location for new housing development but also that the scale of development proposed can be successfully accommodated on the site in a manner which respects the various technical constraints whilst also adhering to established principles of good urban design.
“This will be a high quality development [that] respects the local character [and] delivers much needed homes in an attractive landscape setting. We therefore request that planning permission is granted for this scheme.”
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