Lord Bamford accused of ‘strangling' community with eco hotel

Telegraph

4 days ago

Lord Bamford's eco hotel plans have been accused of 'strangling' an Oxfordshire community.
The JCB digger tycoon finally had his plans to redevelop the Mill House Hotel approved last August after the exchange of 132 documents with West Oxfordshire district council.
But Lord Bamford has asked the council to let him change his plans in a proposal due to go for consultation this month.
The changes would include a cycle hire scheme for guests, a private lounge and the conversion of a rustic potting shed into standalone accommodation.
A planning statement submitted by Edgars planning firm on his behalf said: 'The demand and challenges of the tourism and hospitality market post-Covid has driven the focus on the highest quality of accommodation and guest experience in competition with the unencumbered world market which has opened with the removal of travel restrictions.
'Operationally, it is therefore best to deliver fewer bedrooms of a high quality and enhance guest experience.'
It is the latest chapter of the Tory peer's five-year battle to turn a historic mill into Britain's 'most sustainable hotel', a dream he shares with his wife Lady Carole Bamford, who runs Daylesford organic farm.
Lord Bamford had submitted two applications as part of a phased scheme for the redevelopment, which ask for changes to the hotel's communal facilities and 10 holiday cottages, with access roads, parking, service buildings, hard and soft landscaping and associated works.
Each cottage will have a private terrace and grassed area, separated by low stone walls. There will also be private gardens where horticulture and the growing of fruit and vegetables will be celebrated, the application states.
But the plans attracted the ire of James Price, who called the site an 'excess burden in the making' for local infrastructure.
'The applicant owns several properties in the village and it seems envisages links between the Mill House site and these other interests' Mr Price wrote in an objection. 'This will inevitably generate more traffic with the increased risks of road traffic accidents and additional pollution.
'In the current dry weather, dust clouds rise from the site and may imperil local health. Further development will add to this menace.
'Far from being just an appendage to the village, this development is going to strangle the community with increased road traffic and loads transport on the local services. The applicant may adopt less polluting forms of transport, but I doubt this will be adopted by all their deliveries.'
He added that trade vehicles parking in Kingham's narrow streets imperilled road safety and said 'the inclusion of 10 additional households with at least one vehicle each will add to this misery'.
The plans have also been dealt a blow by Devinda Kumarasinghe, a senior transport development officer, who recommended the council object, pointing out the vehicular access was proposed to be widened and that no road safety audit had been provided.
In the planning statement in support of Daylesford Farm's application, it was argued: 'The proposed development by virtue of a reduction in the overall number of bedrooms being provided, and a reduction in parking, is balanced by a slight increase in floor area over the consented floorspace for these elements.
'The overall quantum of development is therefore not significantly larger than the consented scheme and such are not considered major development in the national landscape. The proposed development would continue to integrate with the site and wider landscape and reflect the traditional village vernacular.'