Increased lodge leisure plan at Willingham meets with opposition

Approval for 30 woodland lodges at Willingham Park, North Willingham was originally given in 2010, with a modified plan being approved last year.

Now site owner Robert Whitely of UC Holdings Ltd has applied to change the number of lodges from 30 to 57.

The application includes 127 car parking spaces and 24 cycle spaces.

There would also be a restaurant/bar with conferencing facilities, a farm shop, cycle hire facilities, a site office and a gymnasium at the proposed leisure park, which sits in the former walled garden of Willingham House.

The application was discussed at the North Willingham Parish Meeting and the residents present voted unanimously to oppose the plan.

They said the increase in the number of woodland lodges represented ‘a worrying increase in the density of the development and a complete change in character to that originally approved’.

Concerns were also raised about the ‘significant’ number of extra trees which would be cut down to accommodate the additional cabins and ‘the effect this felling would have on the appearance of this site and on the situation and historic setting of the walled garden.

There were concerns too over increased traffic, light pollution, sewage works.

In response to some of these concerns, Mr Whiteley’s agent, David Queripel has written to planners.

“In terms of the Parish Council comments about greater impacts, particularly in relation to traffic, I would again comment that the number of bed spaces and overall floor area will generally remain the same as the approved proposal,” he wrote.

“There has been no strategy for woodland management for decades, and as a consequence, most of the trees are self seeded and of very little value.

“The current proposal will mean that the best specimen trees will be retained and managed and there will be additional native species tree planting.

A date has yet to be confirmed for the application to go to West Lindsey’s planning committee.