Brinkley holiday lodge site plans face objection from Southwell Town Council

Plans to turn a golf course into a holiday lodge site have faced objections from councillors.

A planning application has been submitted to transform the ‘redundant’ The Orchards Golf Course, on Fiskerton Road, to house 19 ‘luxury’ holiday lodges with on-site lakes.

The site is within an open countryside location, and in in 2016 was granted outline consent for a new club house and up to six holiday lodges.

Subsequent applications for 20 lodges and 35 lodges have been refused.

As well as the 19 timber-style lodges, the latest plans would also see the creation of roadways, a reception building, car park, lighting, and landscaping including fishing lakes at the site.

A tourism need statement submitted as part of the application said the proposals “can be considered as a leisure park as well as accommodation” and represented a new offering for the area as other accommodation in the area has “limited facilities and amenity areas”.

Due to other sites having “very high occupancy rates during the key peak seasons”, the application suggested there was need for this kind development.

One document stated: “The need for further tourist accommodation can only add to the number of visitors adding to the economy of Southwell and surrounding area.”

Application documents also stated the “existing wild habitat on the site will be retained” and that the developer will “enter into an agreement with the local authority and or private landowners to clear and uprate Crew Lane in order to provide an easy and accessible route from the site direct into Southwell”.

The area to be used as the holiday lodge site has been reduced in size since previous applications — and an area of land has also been offered to the adjacent Southwell City Football Club site as overspill carparking.

The application was objected to by Southwell Town Council’s planning committee on Wednesday, March 2.

Roger Blaney said as the land which would be used to link to Crew Lane was not under the applicants control, he did not see it had “merit” — as well as noting the “sweetner” of offering land to the football club wasn’t helpful as the club said they didn’t want it.

A comment on the planning portal by Southwell City FC said: “SCFC is working on its own proposals to increase car parking within our own site and has been in discussions with NSDC and Southwell Town Council, as the freeholders of the land which we occupy under a lease.”

It further explained it had not engaged in any negotiations with the applicant or their agents over the use of the land, and had not yet been formally consulted on the proposals.

Lyn Harris, considering the number of lodges, said: “They seem to be wanting to put a lot on there.”

Karen Roberts described the proposed lighting on the site as “over intensified” for the countryside location, and said: “Could you imagine if we had this lights on Brinkley Hill all night.”

Mr Blaney recommended the application be objected to on the same grounds as it previously had been — due to the open countryside location, and it not represnting sustainable rural tourism due to location, scale, and inaccessibility by public transport.

This was agreed by other councillors.

It was also suggested that if approved, a restriction should be put in place as to how long one person or group could occupy a lodge in a year, due to concern they could become permanent residences.