Bovis Homes change location description

Having promoted their Wychwood Village homes as including a country park and golf course, Bovis Homes have now changed this on their website, and presumably will be doing the same for all brochures too:

“Wychwood Village is a unique development of three, four, five and six bedrooms at Weston, near Nantwich and Crewe. The village is surrounded by an area of woodland. Amenities and schools are close by. The M6 motorway network and high speed trains link Crewe with London.”

See the change of description here

Bovis Homes claim they knew nothing of this proposed development (in writing), but it is something the committee are reviewing to consider whether residents should contact them (or Bryant Homes if you live in one of the earlier homes). At this stage, please hang fire, we’ll hopefully update on this at the meeting next Sunday 7 April.

The Sentinel – We don’t want 900 homes

The Sentinel have published a news story about the closure of Gorstyhill Golf Club and the development proposal:

We don’t want 900 homes

The story was produced last minute so lacks many of the facts we’d like to include, but it is the intention of the committee to liaise with the media after our next residents meeting on Sunday 7 April at 3pm.

If in the meantime you are approached by the media, by all means mention your anger and disappointment at all that has happened, but for anything else, please put them in touch with us directly, as we have a PR person looking after this directly and we want to ensure all information is accurate, and published at the appropriate time to give us maximum impact.

Golf club not commercially viable?

Are they sure!!!! The club is the busiest we have seen it in 6 years. The car park is full, they are even using the overflow driving range area as well as parking all over the roads!

Yes it is a bank holiday weekend, but this could be a very successful club if the owner cared to invest any money into it, or prevent alienating the members by taking away their ability to pay annually.

Thanks all to those that sent photos in and stopped me (Ian) this morning to talk.

Gorstyhill Golf Club closes its doors

The owner of Gorstyhill (Tony Hunt – Haddon Property Developments Ltd) has announced to staff this morning (10.00am) that the club will close for good on Easter Sunday (31 March 2013).

This unfortunately comes as no surprise. We knew this approach would be taken to suggest to the council that the land cannot operate as a golf club. We know the club is viable, but has been run into the ground.

Gorstyhill email to members

We believe that two members of the ground keepers team will be retained to look after the ‘country park’. There are mixed reports of whether this will include basic maintenance of the course too.

Our thoughts are with the staff (as well as the residents), but if we work together, we can beat this proposed development.

Next residents meeting – Sunday 7 April 2013 at 3pm

The next residents / community meeting will take place on Sunday 7 April 2013 at 3:00pm in the Wychwood Village community hall.

The meeting is to discuss the progress so far and next steps.

Please do attend.

Want to be kept updated?

If you would like to be kept updated on the progress the community are making in our battle against the Gorstyhill Golf Club development, just contact us and we’ll add you to our list.

(Please note that if you attended the meeting on Tuesday 19 March 2013 and filled in the visitor sheet, or have previously signed the petition, you will already be on our list)

Crewe Chronicle news article

The Crewe Chronicle have obviously got wind of this proposal and published the story on their website:

Plans unveiled for another 900 homes on outskirts of Crewe

It lacks depth, but is certainly good to see it has reached the local papers.

Current proposal

Below you will find links to the current proposal that was presented by Haddon Property Developments Ltd during the weekend exhibition at the Wychwood Village community centre (15-18 March).

You will require Adobe Acrobat or similar to open these PDF files:

Introduction
Sense of place
Masterplan (site layout)
A new village centre
Sustainability
Masterplan indicative views

As you will see, not that much effort has gone into this half hearted attempt and the content is full of questionable statements. The suggestion that the golf course is “not viable as a business” is completely untrue; even in the current economic climate the golf course has been successful, but has slowly been damaged by the present owner (since May 2011) in an attempt to push this proposal through the council.

Remember, the majority of what you see on the plans is directed at what they think Cheshire East would like as part of the deal; the plans have already changed a few times to suit!

Brief information

Haddon Property Developments Ltd want to build ~900 new properties, retail units (shops and offices) primary school, sports ground and a public house on the entire Gorstyhill golf course and open countryside around Wychwood Village. The area is situated in South East Cheshire, this is not in line with the local town plan of Crewe and its surrounding areas and is unsympathetic to the existing developments at Wychwood Village and Wychwood Park.

Help us stop this from happening by signing out petition:

http://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/stopgorstyhilldeve

Don’t forget to include your email address so we can keep you updated with progress.