Bridport News

Lyme Regis: Wood owner considers selling to commercial firm

By Adrianne Maslen

10:49am Wednesday 17th March 2010

THE owner of a Lyme Regis wood said he is still considering selling out to a commercial firm with potentially ‘damaging’ plans for the site.

Controversial proposals to build two low-energy chalets in the Pound Street wood – also known as Whistler’s Wood – were thrown out by district planners in November.

Landowner Quentin Craven then warned he could be forced to sell the wood to a large company, who he feared would ‘bulldoze’ their way through.

Mr Craven said this week he is now considering offers from two companies.

He said: “I’m considering re-applying for planning permission, but whether I’m banging my head against a wall, I don’t know.

“I have also taken offers from two commercial interests, who in the long term would do something more damaging.

“They are certainly going to regard it as a long term investment and will sit on it. They probably want to put storage units or something on it.

“Do I want to go through all the abuse and stupidity and hysteria that I had from the locals the last time?

“Or do I say I have been given a possible offer not a long way short of what I would have got in terms of profit in doing what I proposed? They would do the minimum needed to maintain it and it would fall into increased disrepair. I despair that this is what I could be forced to do.”

Mr Craven said he is continuing basic woodland maintenance but it desperately needs ‘radical renovation work’.

The plans for the chalets came under fire from local residents and the town council, who said the wood should be preserved for the community and held in trust.

Mr Craven said: “I feel that the town council and the local planners have been incredible short-sighted. What I proposed was actually bringing the woodland back up to scratch, putting in new saplings, and taking out poor specimens of trees, of which there were plenty. It would have created a healthy woodland with a future.

“The locals have been whipped up into a total misinformed hysteria and have been given a completely wrong picture of what is intended.”

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