When Aria Resorts bought the Priory Bay Hotel back in 2017, they announced grand plans for a multi-million investment in the Bembridge-based hotel.
Next Tuesday (5th March) a planning application will be heard by the Isle of Wight planning committee for the redevelopment of the hotel and grounds and “conditional permission” is being recommended by officers for the Planning Application and Listed Building Consent.
An online petition has been doing the rounds on Facebook, gathering pace overnight, and now has over 500 signatures calling on plans for development in the woods (including ten tree houses) overlooking the beach to be stopped.
The application
The tree houses are just one part of the planning application, (full details here) which also includes:
A two storey extension to the existing hotel and internal alterations to existing structure; conversion, alteration and refurbishment of existing outbuildings to provide 14 hotel suites, a restaurant, bar and spa; provision of up to 56 holiday lodges, 10 tree houses and 12
woodland retreats
Charity Garnett, who set up the petition says she is not opposed to the redevelopment, but to overdevelopment.
The petition
The petition reads:
Priory Bay is an oasis of peace and wildness and is arguably* the most beautiful beach on the Isle of Wight. It is also the only undeveloped beach between Ryde and Bembridge and with ancient broadleaf woodland reaching down to the sand, is a very rare habitat on the Island, and in the UK. Loved by adults and children for generations, it holds a very special place in many peoples’ imaginations, locals and visitors alike.
Aria Resorts have applied to redevelop the Priory Bay Hotel above the beach, and want to site 10 ‘tree-houses’ in the woods overlooking the beach. The Isle of Wight Planning Committee meet next Tuesday, 5th March 2019 to approve, reject or amend their plans. Despite the objections of the local Parish Council and Island Roads, and the concerns of the ecology and tree officers, the planning officers are advising that the development scheme is passed without any changes.
Once Priory Bay is ‘developed’ it can never be ‘undeveloped’, and we will have lost another part of what makes the Island so special. We are not opposing the ‘redevelopment’ of the Priory Bay Hotel, but these plans are ‘overdevelopment’, and therefore the destruction of natural assets that cannot be replaced.
We ask the Isle of Wight Planning Committee as guardians of the Island to:-
– Reject all development in the woods that border Priory Bay
– Closely consider the perspectives of the Parish Council and Island Roads in reducing the density of the proposed development, especially the chalets and lodges.
– Prioritise safeguarding the ecology of this unique area for the long term future, rather than short term economic benefit, in line with the sustainable development goals laid out in the Island Plan.
Thank you for signing – please share far and wide – we only have until Tuesday 5th March to make our voices heard.
*I am biased – but I have walked all the way round it!
You can see the petition on the Change.org Website.
Image: © Ben Adams Architects
