Plans have been submitted this week for a huge 400-lodge holiday resort near Newquay. Green Ridge Resort would cover over 70 hectares of Cornish agricultural land but some residents believe it will add to traffic ‘chaos’ in the area.
Kingsley Leisure Developments Limited, run by Cornish developers the Simpson family, has lodged proposals with Cornwall Council’s planning department for outline permission to build the holiday resort on land to the north of the A392, near the hamlets of Mountjoy and Colan, to the East of Quintrell Downs.
The development would include up to 400 holiday accommodation units, up to 16 units of staff accommodation, central facilities buildings, a solar farm with associated battery storage, the creation of a new access off the A392 with associated highway improvement works, car parking, electric vehicle charging, comprehensive landscaping and ecological enhancement measures, outdoor activity areas, and other associated infrastructure works.
The company’s masterplan illustrates that Green Ridge Resort would feature the following main elements: Up to 400 one- to five-bed luxury and contemporary holiday lodges and bespoke accommodation units, which could include some apartments.
The aim is to provide a mix of accommodation to cater for as wide demand as practicable, including local and national holidaymakers comprising solo travellers, couples, families and larger groups The current working assumption is that around 35% (circa 150 units) of the accommodation would be fleet / rental units and around 65% (circa 250 units) of the accommodation would be privately owned.
There would be up to an additional 16 lodges for staff accommodation.
A mix of facilities buildings comprising a reception area, shuttle bus hub, swimming pool, spa / gym, swimming lake, activity hub, shops, and a food court, including a restaurant, bar and café.
A range of informal outdoor activities including picnic areas, playground, splash park, dedicated dog walking area and running / walking trails.
Seasonal activities would be organised within the open spaces (meadows) provided on site.
A dedicated means of access off the A392. This would include associated road widening and the creation of a right-turn ghost island Internal road infrastructure and car parking (with two dedicated spaces per lodge for the privately owned accommodation) A new pedestrian / cycle link leading from the resort to Quintrell Downs.
Extensive hard and soft landscaping and biodiversity enhancement measures The creation of new permanent water bodies.
Surface water drainage infrastructure, forming part of a site-wide sustainable drainage system.
This would comprise a combination of linked, above ground infiltration and attenuation basins, with attenuated flows out-falling at a greenfield run-off rate to a watercourse within the site boundary.
A below ground foul water drainage system connected to the existing South West Water drainage system.
An on-site solar farm, with associated battery storage facility and EV charging facilities.
Free EV charging points would be provided at all privately-owned accommodation and within the other car parking areas, including staff and operational vehicle parking areas.
A service yard and a series of workshops for operational staff, including grounds maintenance / landscaping staff, accommodation maintenance staff and housekeeping staff.
A centralised recycling centre Other associated infrastructure including, cycle / e-bike hubs throughout the site, service subs (for housekeeping), fencing, lighting (this would be solar wherever possible) and signage, etc.
The plans indicate that, if approved, the Green Ridge Resort would be built in five phases, with the completion of the first phase occurring in 2027 and each subsequent phase happening annually thereafter. The final phase would occur in 2031.
A planning statement says: “The Green Ridge Resort would represent a circa £50 – £60 million capital investment in the local area. It would generate 56 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs for each year of its give-year construction phase, 175 FTE direct jobs during its operation and enough operational and visitor expenditure to generate 350 FTE jobs.”
Kingsley Leisure Developments Limited is collaborating with established and respected tourism operators, including Stephen Twiss, a non-executive director of Kingsley Leisure Developments. Mr Twiss is a leisure and tourism industry expert and was the founder and former CEO of Lakeshore Leisure Group, which was responsible for the development and operation of a series of multi award-winning, high-class holiday resorts.
Prior to setting up Lakeshore Leisure Group, Mr Twiss was the MD of Luxury Lodges.com and, before that, he spent five years as a senior executive at Haven, one of the UK’s leading holiday park operators. Earlier this year, CEO Monthly named him as the UK’s most influential leisure brand CEO for 2023.
The now third generation of the Kingsley Leisure family business has extensive development experience in the South West and has also been responsible for overseas developments including successful builds in the USA.
Local developments they have been involved with include the Kingsley Village shopping complex at Fraddon together with many thousands of homes across the region – most notably in Newquay, Launceston and St Austell.
“The business continues to be actively involved in the retail, commercial, residential, hospitality and holiday sectors. The current projected GDV of the group’s land bank exceeds £700m, and they are fully committed, together with their development partners, to the delivery of the Green Ridge Resort,” adds the planning statement.
The proposals appeared on Cornwall Council’s planning portal on Monday, December 11, and have already attracted some objection from local residents.
Comments include: “Absolutely appalled by the prospect of this monstrous proposal. Most if not all of Quintrell Down’s residents will be in agreement that the area does not want for nor need anything of this scale, especially during the peak summer where travelling into or out of Newquay is already an ordeal due to the growing amount of housing.
“I do believe the timing of this submission is strategic to sidestep any neighbour/local community engagement and push an application through over the holiday period. A development of this size and scale, is not wanted, is not needed (other holiday parks and a number of ‘aparthotels’ are locally available), will cause huge destruction of natural habitat for our endangered native species, will grossly impact the (already) saturated local infrastructure and increase the misery of the local community with zero benefit realised, other than those who will profit.
“This planning application as oversized, detrimental to the people living in the village and town and to the environment. I believe it will also have a huge negative impact on the biodiversity of the proposed land.
“The fact that the traffic in Quintrell during the summer months is queued back to the proposed site entrance says it all. Quintrell Downs has a terrible problem with air pollution most of the year and in the summer months its pollution is the same levels as many UK cities. This site will only make the problem worse especially as the Boardmasters site is about to grow massively.
“All roads into Newquay are already completely jammed in the winter let alone the summer. Traffic has never been so bad. This new resort will just add more chaos and unnecessary extra traffic to an already unusable infrastructure in the town.”
There has been little planning interest in the land proposed for the site until now. A previous application on the eastern part of the proposed site, for the erection of a single 500kw wind turbine, was refused ten years ago.
For more information see planning application PA23/09752 on the council’s online planning register – https://planning.cornwall.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?keyVal=S4Y0M3FGH3700&activeTab=summary
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