Holiday haven

Up to 170 holiday lodges could be built on a disused Army camp in a project costing £3m.

Ventura Leisure Lodges Ltd wants to transform the Proteus Camp, Blyth Road, Ollerton, by building wooden holiday homes and facilities including a café/bar.

The plans were welcomed by the leader of Ollerton and Boughton Town Council, Mr Ben Wells, who said the area would benefit through trade and tourism.

His comments came as the town council’s planning committee discussed the plans, which have been submitted to Newark and Sherwood District Council and seek to change the use of the site and demolish existing buildings.

A separate application has been made seeking outline permission for supporting facilities, which, as well as a café/bar, would include a reception, an office, a lounge and a fitness suite.

Mr Wells, the chairman of the planning committee, said the idea would bring only benefits.

He said the current buildings looked awful for such a wonderful area and he imagined the proposed lodges would look attractive, particularly to people who lived in towns.

The committee agreed to support the plans but said they would prefer to see it developed in stages with the brownfield section developed first.

The site was used as a training camp from the early 1940s by the American and British armed forces.

At its peak, there were up to 1,000 personnel, plus tanks, and artillery and a firing range.

It was used by the Ministry of Defence until October 2004 when it became surplus to requirements.

The site reverted back to the control of the Thoresby Estate, which is a major landowner in the area and is Ventura’s business partner.

It was used for the storage of machinery and goods by a building contractor for a short time but has remained vacant since.

Irene Miller told the committee that she toured the camp about 18 months ago.

“The site was crying out to be something other than derelict,” she said.

Mr Ray Shilling said: “This is the sort of thing we want to encourage in the area — anything that promotes tourism, especially on this type of site which is predominantly brownfield.”

He was concerned, however, that a large proportion of the lodges were outside the brownfield area which was against planning policy and the council would need to have good grounds to support it.

Mr Shilling questioned whether it was a reasonable amount of development in that area and whether it was necessary for the viability of the project.

A statement accompanying the application said the lodges were for holidays and not permanent residential occupation.

Measures would be in place to ensure holiday use only.

It said Nottinghamshire had a limited supply of holiday lodges and this type of accommodation was popular with tourists.

It said the limited range of facilities was designed to meet visitors’ essential needs and not for the site to be self-sufficient.

It said this would benefit the local economy.

Occupiers would buy the lodge and pay an annual ground rent to Ventura, which has significant experience of operating similar timber lodge schemes in England and Scotland.

Three designs are proposed for the lodges, each with a veranda. The biggest lodges would be 191/2m long, 6m wide and 31/2m high.