Ladram Bay’s mooted £4m luxury lodge scheme narrowly rejected

A £4 million investment that would have seen 32 luxury lodges installed at an East Devon holiday centre has been narrowly rejected by planners.

Ladram Bay Holiday Park had proposed putting the new lodges, which it said would help it meet the “increasing expectations of holidaymakers”, in an unused field north of its existing footprint.
It had sought to ease its neighbours’ concerns about the potential impact on the environment by removing some caravans and mobile homes from other parts of the park, leading to 15 fewer units across the site.
But East Devon District Council’s planning committee was tasked with weighing up the impact on the environment – the site sits in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and in the East Devon Coastal Preservation Area – against the potential economic benefits.
Objectors included Otterton Parish Council, whose local plan has a specific policy linked to Ladram Bay.
It states that development outside a defined area should be “limited” and not provide “any additional holiday units or visitor accommodation”.
While the number of units across the park would have fallen, some contended that the larger proposed lodges could mean more guests able to stay in each, and that the number of new lodges in an unused was not ‘limited’ development.
Roger Pellow, a member of Otteron Parish Council, said there had been “unanimous” objection to the plan.
“We support the park, but not to this extent,” he said.
“This application goes against our neighbourhood plan, it affects the AONB and the heritage coast, and will affect traffic in the area.”
Resident Ian Birch said he led the team that created Otterton’s local plan, and that it “majors on landscape and nature protection.
“A total of 32 lodges of the type proposed constitutes major development and is not limited, and our policy linked to Ladram Bay gave seven criteria that need to be satisfied for development to proceed and this fails all but one,” he said.
Another resident, Geoff Porter, thought it would have a “significant impact on the landscape” regardless of attempts to screen it, and that given the “great deal of effort put into creating the local plan, it must be used to inform planning decisions”.
Jeremy Lamb, the agent for the applicant, said the proposal represented a “significant investment” to maintain the appeal of the park and support the wider tourism economy.
“New designs have been developed and launched, which include eco-smart lodges and the first-ever carbon-zero production lodges, which are designed to take parks one step closer to off-grid status, so Ladram Bay is therefore at the forefront of the holiday park industry with this application,” he said.
Mr Lamb said the land for the new lodges was graded as 3b, meaning it had limited potential for agricultural use. However, council officers thought some of it was graded as 3a, the lowest grade of ‘best and most versatile’ farming land.
And ward member, Cllr Henry Riddell (Conservative, Budleigh and Raleigh) said the “economic benefits of the proposal cannot be overstated”.
He noted the park employed around 180 people, the vast majority of whom lived locally, and that the scheme would “elevate the park’s appeal and allow it to be able to compete effectively in the staycation market.
“The neighbourhood plan’s restrictive policies hinder Ladram from growing and competing in the tourism market, and the National Planning Policy Framework does support economic growth in rural areas,” he said.
Ladram Bay, which has been in existence for 80 years, said the scheme would bring three full-time jobs with it, and three or four seasonal ones.
Cllr Mike Howe said the committee “couldn’t ignore local plans at a whim” unless there was overwhelming social or economic benefit that outweighed the potential environmental harm.
“But here we have overwhelming harm, and the boost I think is minor,” he said.
“You can see how it branches out into the National Landscape, it does not seem on conjunction with the site and it is quite a blatant extension.”
Cllr Matt Hall (Liberal Democrat, Exmouth Withycombe Raleigh) added that while he understood that businesses needed to adapt, “we are bound by a set of policies and for me it is clear that this application is predominantly against those.
“We must bear in mind about conserving and enhancing the AONB, and if we think adding 32 units does that, then I think we are in trouble.”
Wendy Ormsby, the council’s development manager, added that there would be nothing to stop the applicant putting forward a similar proposal within the current park.
“Nobody is saying what is there now has to stay that way, and the units will get changed, upgraded and replaced with more modern versions over time, so I don’t think the committee has to consider this application as the only way Ladram Bay can keep its accommodation in line with consumer demand,” she said.
After a nearly two-hour debate, the committee rejected the application in line with officers’ recommendations by six votes to five.