Dear Sir,
Congratulations on a great editorial regarding the planners and Hall Construction application’s application for a much reduced and infinitely more acceptable planning application for development on the Woodham golf course than the previous owners managed to get approved.
The planners seem to think that yet another hotel is needed in the area but fail to understand that there is simply no demand for it with very low occupancy rates of all other hotels in the area.
They also failed to recognise that the very strong local opposition to the previous owners application has now changed to general support for the much more realistic and acceptable development now on the table. What on earth is the matter with our planners?
The locally based Hall brothers investment has already been substantial and if our brainless planners are not very careful, our area will lose a prized leisure asset altogether. I hope and expect that the owners will appeal and that residents, golfers and the very many other people who use this facility (not just golfers) will get behind this comparatively modest development proposal.
This is a far more sensible, financially sustainable and environmentally acceptable proposal than the previous one which was approved by the same planners only a year or two ago. In addition, the Hall brothers are local business people who have a vested interest in doing what is right for our local community unlike the previous foreign owners.
Let us all get behind this modest planning application or we risk losing one of the best sporting and leisure facilities in the area.
Tony Haworth
Woodham