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Green gateway hotel plan turned down in Colchester

9:00am Friday 28th May 2010 in News By James Calnan

Mayor Sonia Lewis celebrates with campaigners at the planned hotel site Mayor Sonia Lewis celebrates with campaigners at the planned hotel site

CELEBRATIONS are under way after an independent inspector turned down plans to build a hotel on a green gateway into Colchester.

Inspector Julia Gregory ruled a three-star hotel, with 87 beds, could not be built off Cymbeline Way, near a route used daily by tens of thousands of people.

Landowner, the Strategic Land Planning Trust, part of the Profitable Group, appealed after Colchester Council twice refused bids to build on the fields, following opposition from residents, conservationists and councillors.

During a four-day hearing, the trust argued Colchester needed the hotel, and insisted it would not look out of place.

But, in her decision, Mrs Gregory dismissed both claims, saying there were other sites in Colchester where a similar hotel could be built, and saying it would be a “significant intrusion”.

She wrote: “This land forms part of a green and pleasant landscaped approach to Colchester along Cymbeline Way.

“The scale of the building would be far in excess of any others in the general area, where buildings are small and dispersed.”

David Norton, from the Lexden Conservation Group, said it was “extremely pleased” with the result, which could halt further attempts to develop the fields.

Lexden councillor and Colchester mayor, Sonia Lewis, said she believed common sense had prevailed.

Colchester MP Bob Russell, who gave evidence at the appeal, said it was an “excellent result”.

He added: “I hope this is a turning point in planning in Colchester.”

Comments(11)

love Dr says...
10:30am Fri 28 May 10

Bob im sure if they gave you a good hand shake,it would be a different story,We need more hotels to support the town dont we.........You already made colchester a joke by building that Vaf

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Sdapeze says...
10:35am Fri 28 May 10

So that is two hotel applications turned down recently. Together with a lack of tourist signage on our roads, we are doing well to keep Colchester a secret. No shortage of signs telling potential visitors where Braintree Freeport or Colchester Zoo or the Food Hall, etc. are, but the heritage sites of Colchester, top secret!

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Andy Hamilton says...
6:26pm Fri 28 May 10

No mention of the notorious history of the "Profitable group". They specialise in buying up green belt land and selling slices to investors on the promise of huge profits when development takes place. Everyone is happy, the original landowner does well, Profitable group make a good markup and the investor dreams of the riches to come one day....
.
On the Profitable group website the land shown was bigger than the actual land owned. A corrected version was sent to those who commented on the application. I complained to the inspector on the misleading website.
.
There are loads of sites that could be used for hotels around Colchester. A building near the VAF was going to be converted but the developer probably abandoned the idea after seeing the VAF.

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totallyfootball says...
6:26pm Fri 28 May 10

Or signs suggesting not to drop your litter!

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seco2 says...
7:26pm Fri 28 May 10

OK, I appreciate people might not want their views spoiled, but this constant rejection of hotel applications isn't going to do much for tourism, at a time when outside money is desperately needed. There is nowhere even half-decent for tourists to stay in Colchester. The town-centre hotels are all dumps.

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totallyfootball says...
9:32pm Fri 28 May 10

There are plenty of hotels in and around Colchester already, and I am sure The George, Ramada and the Best Western to name a few would take exception to that description of being dumps.

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seco2 says...
9:47pm Fri 28 May 10

totallyfootball - tripadvisor gives the George, the most central hotel, a rating of "68% would not recommend", and an overall rating of "terrible". have a look. the Ramada and BW get better ratings, but they're not exactly in town, are they...?

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totallyfootball says...
9:58pm Fri 28 May 10

Sorry Tripadvisor means nothing to me but I guess they do ratings. A bit like Parkers guide, but if they were to agree with others then they would never sell their statistics? And as for the others they are near enough to the town. I stay in hotels a lot but I never stay right in the middle of a town centre. As I said that was just a few, what makes you think that the new hotel would get more than the 68%. And as it was said some time ago we cannot fill the hotels that we have now!

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PeterB_2 says...
1:24am Sat 29 May 10

This application makes a mockery of the English planning system. This is a typical land banking company strategy. Buy cheap protected or green-belt land. Sell it to Asian investors making tens of millions in profit. Then submit a few applications, appeals and reports over several years to convince Asian investors that things things are really progressing and get them all excited about investing more money. This site like the other site in Colchester (spring Grove) never had any chance of success and I hope Colchester council will say so loudly and clearly to stop this farce continuing.

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SteveFL says...
3:36am Sat 29 May 10

I note that the Profitable Group has another Essex location progressing for planning on their website "Spring Grove Colchester". They also talk about a plan for putting solar panels on it. Can the Gazette follow up on their 17th March 2005 story that said that this site will not be developed ?

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E.L. Wisty says...
2:19am Tue 1 Jun 10

Recent news from Profitable Group (based in Singapore these days)...

Profitable Plots investor sues to get her $31,500 back
http://www.todayonli
ne.com/Singapore/EDC
100601-0000043/Profi
table-Plots-investor
-sues-to-get-her-$31
,500-back

Profitable Group slams irate investors
http://www.todayonli
ne.com/Singapore/EDC
100529-0000082/Profi
table-Group-slams-ir
ate-investors

Shouting, then shoving
http://business.asia
one.com/Business/New
s/My%2BMoney/Story/A
1Story20100526-21861
3.html

Looks like they may not be around that much longer.

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