3:29pm Thursday 2nd March 2006
By Sarah Singleton
Residents are celebrating victory after controversial plans to build a new accommodation block at the prestigious Rudloe Hall Hotel were thrown out by North Wiltshire District Council's development control committee.
A petition containing 117 signatures opposing the new scheme described by planning officers as a pick-and-mix design with rocket booster' towers was handed in at a meeting on Wednesday last week.
Members of the Rudloe Residents Action Group also attended the meeting to voice their concerns and Box parish council clerk Margaret Carey added further weight to the tide of opposition.
The hotel already has planning permission to build an extra accommodation block but the new application proposed a new design which is larger than the original and includes four large towers, balconies and extra rooms.
Richard Fisher, speaking for the hotel, described the new scheme as an interpretation of the Regency style, a charming new building that would delight the community.
"It will give the community something special," he said.
The community, however, did not seem impressed.
Residents had written 33 letters of objection complaining the architecture was unsympathetic, that it would damage the rural character of the area and spoil a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Rudloe Hall Hotel is a large Grade II listed building built in the high Victorian Gothic style dating back to 1875 and Box parish council was concerned the new plans would not enhance it.
Mrs Carey said: "Box Parish Council supports refusal. This block is larger than the existing hotel and will have a detrimental effect on the listed building."
At the meeting, planning officer Brian Taylor said the proposed towers looked like rocket boosters.
"I think it is a very poor design," he said.
Coun Tudor Jones said the hotel was dealing in a form of artistic blackmail' by circulating a picture of the old design which he said appeared like an East European warehouse and a brighter picture of the new scheme.
The plans did find support from Coun Peter Davis who described it as imaginative, forward-looking and eco-friendly.
"We're desperately in need of tourist accommodation. People are forced to go to Bath for a hotel when they would like to stay in the country areas," he said.
After the meeting Mr Fisher took the refusal on the chin and said they were not overly disappointed about the refusal because building work would begin on the original design in about eight weeks time.
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